


Make a Scene

by Shrooboid313



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, malec - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, College AU, Eventual Romance, Eventual Sex, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Gangs, Gay, Happy Ending, LGBTQ Character, M/M, Malec, Romance, Slow Burn, Violence, take that as you will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2018-12-26 05:38:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 62,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12052452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shrooboid313/pseuds/Shrooboid313
Summary: Alec Lightwood, having just graduated high school in a small town, is moving to college in a city miles away from his home. It is here where he finds himself making new friends, enemies and his true passion. During his time, he meets Magnus Bane, a student older and far more popular than he that takes an interest in him. Will Magnus stick by Alec through his troubles?





	1. By Chance

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first AU, and a college one no less. So, I'm hoping you'll be kind, but let me know what you think - and the next chapters will be coming soon.

Today was the day. The day that Alec Lightwood was finally moving out and moving to his college dorm. After doing exceptionally well all the way throughout high school and getting practically perfect grades, he was given a full scholarship to the notable Winchester School. Unfortunately, the school wasn’t exactly one of his choices, but he didn’t have to pay so neither he nor any of his family objected to him going, since it was technically the only school his family could afford for him. The small town hadn’t done his family justice. Additionally, none of his friends from high school were lucky enough to be able to get into the school he was headed to and so he was headed to a new city all alone.

Alec began to chew on one of his fingernails as the car drove him out of his hometown and towards the highway. It was a good long drive and one that he wouldn’t be able to make back on his own, so once he got dropped off, then there was no telling how long it would be until he would get to see his family again. Although, with the life advice that he had been receiving from his parents the majority of the car ride, he was is no particular rush to see them. He would happily try and stay in contact, just not actively try and come home unless things were excessively bad. An idea which didn’t seem too impossible, being that he knew nobody. He tossed both sides through his head, yes, he wasn’t going to have any friends or know anyone there, but then again, nobody was going to know him and so he could just be whoever he wanted to be.

He never actually told his parents that he was gay and the only people that actually knew were his two closest friends from high school and his younger sister, Isabelle. She had always encouraged Alec to be himself and be open with everyone that he knew, although that wasn’t particularly in his style and didn’t really feel that the other student at his high school would be that pleased with him being open with his sexuality. Fortunately, he was leaving that part of his life behind him and was heading towards, what he was hoping, would be better for him.

The sun was blaring down as the car entered the city limits he was moving to. Tall buildings came up on the car faster than they thought. It wasn’t quite New York City, but some of the buildings looked equally as impressive. This was the city that he was going to be living in for, at least, the next three years of his life until he graduated. Just from a couple of minutes in the city there was an incredible amount he passed by. Shops, specialist boutiques, stalls. Restaurants, bars and anything that anyone could have ever hoped for. He really lucked out in getting the scholarship for the city he was in.

Less than ten minutes from the city centre was the college campus, as the car drove out the other end of the centre he knew they were close. His stomach began to twist as the buildings thinned out. There was a flow of cars both in front and behind Alec. It was Friday, the first of the three move-in days for his college and the day that was likely to be the quietest. From the traffic, however, it was looking to be one of the busier days, with a solid stream heading in the same direction and down the same roads. The maps were put away as the cars all seemed to notice they were headed the same way.

A few of the vehicles veered off into different directions, some of them heading towards large, almost grand looking houses. While the houses did look grand, there was definitely a look of age and that many of them had been well lived in. Towards the end of the street, Alec noticed two muscled men in the front yard of one of the houses. The both of them looked as though they were sunbathing out on the deck chairs they were sat on. The house that they were sat in front of looked noticeably untidier than the rest of the houses on the street; clearly the house was a frat house – a place Alec was in no rush to visit or go near.

The college campus slowly came into view. The stream of cars continued all the way until a parking lot on campus where, presumably, the richer students and the teachers probably parked during the day.

Alec, Isabelle and his parents, Robert and Maryse climbed out of the car. Alec took a moment to look around. There were other families, dropping their children off immediately around him. At the bottom end of the parking lot, opposite what looked to be the main administrative building of the college, was a large sports field and a set of metal seats down one end. He turned ack around to face the building, towards where a good ninety percent of the people were heading towards.

“The booklet says that we have to head into the Anteres Building for all the welcome stuff.” Maryse said, looking down at a small book. “And according to the map that’s this building.” Referring to the building before them.

Remaining silent, Alec followed his parents, with his sister by his side. Alec thought to himself that his mother probably didn’t even need the booklet to tell them they were supposed to be heading to the Anteres Building, since it was where the majority of the other people were heading. The four of them headed towards the building and through the doors inside.

\----

The inside of the Anteres Building looked more like a modern office building from the ground floor than a college building. White marble effect coated the entirety of the floor and the staircase on the far end the of the building. The staircase, headed up left and began to curl further to the left as it reached the second floor. Signs marked ‘check in’ pointed the opposite way from the staircase and where the majority of people were headed. As the Lightwoods walked through the building, they passed a seating area of dark green, modern styled sofas with a few people sat around them. They looked like families who were talking to someone who was currently working and telling people where they needed to go and where certain facilities were.

The four walked through a doorway out of the building into what looked to be a quad area of the college. A mass of tables were spaced around the stoned area that was fairly close to the doors the Lightwoods walked out of. The tables all looked to have two letters on a small sign on the front of them. Signs that were back in the Anteres Building said that the letters stood for the last names of the students that were going to be starting in the coming semester. Alec took a sweep of the quad, looking through and around the groups of people, he noticed a tabled marked ‘K&L’ and headed towards it, leading the rest of his family. He heard his parent behind him begin to talk about how he was going to live. Various things about how they wanted him to live, essentially making up rules for him without even consulting what he would have wanted. While nothing that they were saying was bad, Alec thought to himself that the whole situation seemed a little odd that they were going to be living hours away from him so there would have been no way for them to know what he was doing. Something that he was excited about.

With less than five minutes of waiting, Alec found himself at the front of the line, stood in front of the desk and looking down at the woman in front. She looked decidedly unremarkable, there was nothing that Alec was particularly going to remember about her, unless she managed to weasel her way into his life, somehow.

“Hi there. Can I get your name please?” She asked, it was still the morning but she already looked tired from a day of hard work.

“Yeah. It’s Lightwood, Alec Lightwood.” Alec immediately didn’t want to say anymore, realising how awkwardly he sounded. The woman made a sound of acknowledgement as she began to flip through a pile of upright files. She was saying the names to herself under her breath until she made a small ‘ah-hah’ sound before pulling a file out and making a tick on a sheet of paper she had in front of her. She handed the file over to Alec. He thanked her for it as he stepped out of the line. He walked over to his family who were all stood on a section of grass, a little away from the tables. As he joined them, he noticed just how open the quad was and completely surrounded by buildings.

Inside the file there was a single key, a couple of credit card sized cards and a few sheets of paper. The key was the key to his dorm room and the cards, one was his college ID and the other looked to be for a laundromat that was on campus. The sheets of paper gave directions to his dorm room and his welcome week timetable.

“Could you go get Alec’s bags out of the car, dear?” His mother asked his father. “We’ll go find his dorm building and then we’ll let you know where you can find it, okay?” His father nodded his head and wandered off back through the building, the same way that they had come through.

The rest of them began to wander around campus, it felt aimlessly with the size of the campus. As Alec looked down at the map, it looked almost like the town centre of a small town. Each building labelled on the map – it looked as though each of the main topics of study at the college had been assigned its own building. Looking back down onto the map, there were two large looking buildings on either end of the campus that served as the dorms for the first-year students. 

He had already read online about the four different buildings: Aquila, Bermia, Caoria and Dhuna. From things he had read online, three of the four buildings were very much the same except for one, the Dhuna building. The Dhuna building was the one that was known for having the students that always seemed to throw the parties, the stereotypically popular one. Quite often, it was the people who had their way payed into the college, not by scholarship, by rich parent. Much to his own relief, Alec had been a room in the Aquila building, safely on the opposite end of campus.

\---

With the quad being right in the centre of campus, it was still a good five-minute walk to get to the Aquila building – the campus had to be about half a mile long from end to end. Alec’s father was waiting outside with a suitcase either side of him. The group entered the building behind another family that was moving in their daughter, the father was already in tears and they had only just arrived.

The inside of the building was almost all a powder blue colour, as if whoever decorated the building took the ‘Aqua’ part of the name a little too literally. Directly to the left of the entrance of the building looked to be a security office that was presently empty and to the right was small mailboxes for each individual room. About another ten feet in from the entrance was a doorway that led into the hallway attached to a stairwell. A woman stood behind a table that had envelopes with what looked to be room numbers on them.  
“Hey there,” the woman started, “can I get your name and room number, please?”

“Alec Lightwood, 207?” Alec was already starting to feel like less than a person and more just another number in the college’s record. He would be ‘Lightwood, Aquaria, 207, year whatever’ in their records and it was likely that is how the administration would refer to him. The woman ticked Alec’s name off a sheet of paper she had on the desk and passed an envelope with the number ‘207’ printed on the back over to Alec who placed it immediately in his jacket pocket where his key was.

A sign next to a door into the stairwell explained what the room numbers mean. Everyone room had three numbers. The first one, 2 in Alec’s case, was the floor. And the other two numbers were the actual room number on that floor, meaning that Alec was in room 7 on the second floor.

The group took an elevator up to the second floor that looked remarkably similar to the first, powder blue and not excessively decorated. It was likely that the school didn’t want to invest too much money in the place that was inhabited by nothing but students, the notoriously messy age group. The elevators were towards the end of the hallway, next to a door to the right that led into the stairwell. There were approximately twenty-five rooms on each floor, with the lower numbers down the far end of the corridor. The group walked down the corridor, passing door after door until they reached room 7.

It was a room for one and fairly unremarkable at that. The powder blue colour theming was quickly dissolved and exchanged for a basic grey wall and cheap wooden furniture. In line with the doorway was a single window that only opened a little way. To the left of the window was a single bed and a desk to the left of the doorway. A wardrobe and a chest of drawers were on the right-hand side, with a door that led into an en-suite bathroom. As far as dorm buildings came, Alec lucked out in making into the Aquila. It was likely that the others were nowhere near as nice as the one that Alec had ended up in.

His father handed his bags over and the goodbyes were quick, except for his sister’s. A tight embrace as tears fell down faces and Alec had been left alone in his dorm room.

\---

Alec checked the sheet of paper that had his welcome week timetable on it. He had nothing on until Monday afternoon – he was completely free for the rest of the day and the weekend to acclimate to his new surroundings. He thought to himself and his immediate plan was after he properly took a look through everything he was given and unpacking, he would take a wander around the campus to make sure that he would be able to find his way around and perhaps take a look through some of the important buildings.

He was quickly unpacked – plenty of dark colours. And even with everything out of his bags, the room still looked surprisingly lacking. It was more likely that it would gain more life the longer that he stayed in it, the more life like it would look. The two suitcases were positioned firmly down the side of the wardrobe, out of the way of the rest of the room. Sounds came from outside of his room, the sounds of someone else moving in. They sounded nearby and across the hall. One of his neighbours for the next year, although he wasn’t exactly rushing to meet them any time soon. He sat on his bed, happily in silence, looking through all of the papers he had been given. The most of it was just about settling in to, what was essentially, a new life. Things like where nearby facilities and stores were for anytime that a student would need something. Alec, shortly after, decided he would take a walk around the campus to get acclimated.

Out of the door and it seemed far busier. It clearly made sense that people would be arriving later in the day.

The Bermia building was a short walk away from the Aquila and looked remarkably similar – although that might have had more to do with the fact that people were dropping their children off there, as well. Keeping the map in his pocket, Alec refrained from looking at it as much as possible to help give him a feel for the place. With signs practically littering the campus, there was almost no need for the map at all. It might not have been the best day for Alec to take a look around, however, since it was likely that someone of the displays that were set up for everyone arriving drastically changed how the campus looked.

As Alec walked past the Anteres building again, he found himself walking alongside the road. The road that was inhabited by almost all family cars and chatter of the people around him until the relative peace was shattered by the sound of an obnoxiously loud convertible that cut through the family’s cars as it passed. The convertible slowed down, but remained in motion, as is passed Alec. It moved slow enough to allow Alec to see the four people that were sat inside.

A fairly plain looking brunette haired couple sat in the front seats, much like his room, the two of them looked fairly unremarkable from where Alec was stood. The two in the back, on the other hand, there was a girl with glaring ginger hair and a slender man with black hair who looked as though he almost glimmered as he passed. Alec couldn’t properly tell, but it looked like the glimmering man winked at him as he passed. He was taken aback a moment, stopping to turn and look fully into the street and watch the car as it disappeared around a corner further down the street. A pit appeared in Alec’s stomach, he had the feeling that that wasn’t going to be the last time he was going to see the people in the car.

Putting the thought of those people aside, he decided to continue walking down the campus to the other two buildings. At the very least he would get a quick look around the campus, he certainly had no plans to go into any of the other buildings any time soon or at least just for the fun of it.

The Caoria and Dhuna looked completely different to the Aquila and Bermia buildings. Or the Dhuna building looked completely different. While the two of them did have students and families going inside in small clumps, the Dhuna looked visibly more worn that the other three that he had seen. There was the occasional person headed inside the Caoria building that looked over to the Dhuna with distaste. It was evident that they were glad they weren’t going to be staying there.

Alternatively, the kinds of people that were walking into the Dhuna. The students were clearly the more athletic, party types. They were acting far too rowdy than every other student was being. A few of them even going as far as carrying crates of beer up to their rooms. These were the kinds of people Alec was vying to avoid. He walked passed the building, through a few groups until he found himself around the back of the Dhuna. The curtains into a few of the rooms on the ground floor were open and Alec could see inside. The rooms inside looked to match the outside, they looked just as worn. Nowhere near as full of life as the Aquila.

Alec heard the sound of a car pull up behind him.

“You should be careful. Someone might catch you looking into their room.” A voice said. It sounded smooth as it travelled the air to Alec. He turned around, his stomach immediately twisting in guilt. It was the same car that he saw passing earlier, this time there was only one person left in it. The glimmering man who was sat in the back. Up close he looked incredible to Alec. His hair, dark, glittered in the sunlight. His eyes were striking as Alec looked directly into them.

“I was- uhh- just-“ Alec began to stammer.

“Don’t worry. I don’t care.”

“I- I.”

“I’m Magnus, by the way. Magnus Bane.” The man smiled.

“Alec. I’m Alec.” Alec could barely form his words. He found himself looking Magnus up and down, almost entranced by his clothing. Black skinny jeans, similar to his own but his shirt was incredible. It was a yellow-green pattern like none he had ever seen that looked as though it was glowing.

“Well it’s nice to meet you, Alec. I take it you’re in one of the buildings around here?”

“No, I’m uhh… other side of campus.”

“Oh, you got into one of the nicer buildings?” Magnus folded his arms.

“Nicer?”

“Oh yeah, the Aquila and Bermia buildings are the ones that usually stay quieter. So, it’s probably good, if you’re into that sort of thing?” It completely went over Alec’s head that Magnus was trying to gauge what kind of person Alec was.

“That’s… uhh… good to know.” Alec wracked his brain to try and find words that would sound relatively normal. “So, where… are you?” Alec scrunched his face, he knew exactly how dumb he just sounded. “I mean.” Alec froze.

“I’m not in any of the buildings on campus if that’s what you mean. I’m in a rented place a little off campus.” Just as Magnus was about to continue, his phone buzzed and looked away from Alec before sighing a little. “Well, I hate to break this short, but I’ve got to get going. Perhaps I’ll see you around sometime?”

“I- yeah.”

Without another word, Magnus drove off, but at a much safer rate than before.

Alec decided that there wasn’t particularly anything else waiting for him for the rest of the day and decided to head back to the Aquila and to his room. He passed more families dropping their children off and more tears being shed as he passed. He proceeded to pass a large group of people outside the Aquila as he walked back inside and up the stairs to his room. There was very little sound for the rest of the day outside of his room, the only thing he heard was the sound of one person moving in at the far end of the hall.

\---

The first night was silent. The move in date for the day was cut off at seven o’clock in the evening to allow people to settle in for their first night. The time for people to begin moving in was nine, the next morning.

Alec’s bed wasn’t particularly uncomfortable, but it was just about good enough to get a decent night sleep. At least until he was shocked awake by the sound of someone dragging their bags down the hallway and having them crash into the wall as they walked. He heard the sound of a woman sighing before he heard a set of keys dropping on the floor.

Sighing to himself, Alec pulled himself out of his bed, still half asleep and walked over and opened the door. A woman with blonde, shoulder length hair knelt down on the floor, gathering books and papers in her arms to force back into a bag, with a couple of suitcases behind her.

“Need any help with that?” Alec asked with a flat tone, still half asleep.

“Would you?” She said, dropping her keys again as she pushed a few items in a bag. “Damn it.” She said under her breath. Alec leant down and picked the girl’s keys up and handed to her. “Thank you. I’m Mari, sorry if I woke you. I promise I didn’t mea-”

“Don’t worry about it.” He said weakly before running his hands through his bed head a couple of times. “I’m Alec.” He had realised that it would have probably been a good idea to make friends with at least one of the people who would be living around him for the year. Who could tell, it was possible for her to stick around in his life for a good while.

“Nice to meet you.” Mari said, between grunts as she stood back up and unlocked her door. “We’re neighbours for the year, I guess.” Alec could see inside of Mari’s room as the door opened and to very little surprise, it looked exactly the same as his. “Hey, if you want, do you wanna head out together later? I wanna sort my bags out first, but we could head into town?”

“Sure.” He spoke quietly, still half asleep.

“Cool, I’ll knock on your door when I’m done.” She dragged her backs behind her as she entered her room and locked the door behind her. Alec, following almost in her footsteps, closed his door and collapsed back onto his bed, letting out a sigh of relief.


	2. Wild Forever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and new friend, Mari head into the city wherein they run into someone who has ties to Magnus Bane, the red-headed, Clary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking of adding the chapters every five days, perhaps that's a schedule that I'll stick to. But then again, I may want to just jam the entire thing out sooner.

(Saturday morning)

In the time that Mari was unpacking in her room, Alec showered and changed into a black t-shirt and jeans. He had thrown the clothes he was wearing the night before back onto his bed. As much as he wanted to stay with his clothes, he knew that being social was the way he was going to make it through college.

Multiple groups of families could be heard out it the hallway just before Alec heard a knock on his door. He opened it to see Mari again, her blonde hair pulled back into a short ponytail. She was dressed remarkably similarly to Alec, minus an acid-wash denim jacket she had on over the shirt. She was noticeably shorter than Alec was and her face was far softer than his, like she had never experienced anything remotely difficult in her life and her eyes were a soft grey.

“Ready to go?”

“Sure.” Alec grabbed his keys, locking his door behind him.

The two weaved their way down the stairwell passed a several families moving their children in. The same woman was stood behind the table with her clipboard, checking in the new students as they came. Alec already felt as if he knew the place better than the people who were arriving that day. He had always been an independent person, when compared to some of the other people who were going to be moving in, there was the chance that a bunch of them would end up homesick – which was natural. But for Alec, he was happy to be away from home. Because now he could finally be himself.

“Did you have any plan of where we’re going?” Alec asked.

“Not a clue.” Mari started. “I just wanted to take a look around town. I can pretty much figure out the campus on my own, but I was more likely to get lost in town alone. So, I guess I thought I’d drag someone else to get lost with me.” Alec chose to ignore the remark as he wasn’t entirely sure whether she was joking or not.

“You said you came here by yourself?” Alec briskly said, changing the subject.

“I did. I drove up here and my mom is going to be taking the car back tomorrow. She couldn’t make it up today and this was the only day that I could make it up here.”

“Wasn’t there someone else that could have come with you? Another parent or another family member?” Alec asked, stepping carefully around the way that he worded what he was saying to her.

“No, my mom raised me alone – she took me in when I was two and raised me by herself. Sorry if this is pretty heavy stuff, since you’ve known me for, what? All of a few hours.” Alec chuckled to himself as she said this.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. I’m just sorry that I didn’t have anything that interesting happen before I came here.”

“What? Not even like a girlfriend that you left behind or anything?”

“No. Uhh… I’m-“ This was the first time that Alec had been away from his family like this and the first time that he could truly be himself. The first time that he could really tell anyone that he gay. But there was something stopping him. In the back of his mind, even though it was only Mari and him walking, he wondered to himself ‘what if the wrong person heard me?’ The battle was with himself. He had told himself previously that he would start being who he was because he was finally able to. As if the true version of himself in his mind was shooting down all of the barriers to stand front and centre. “I’ve never really y’know. Been into girls. And I never really told any of my family that.”

“You were like an undercover secret agent then?” Mari’s voice rose in pitch. “I’d say that’s pretty exciting.”

Alec took a moment to think about what she just told him. He had never told anyone because he was afraid of the way that people would react. He was afraid that his parents would be disappointed in him, or something worse. He thought for a moment how prideful his parents were in the appearance of the family and Alec kept who he was a secret not wanting his parents to think he would tarnish their reputation. But the way that Mari had described it to him almost made it worth it. And at the very least, it made it a little better for him.

“I guess you’re right.” He said, moving out of the way for a family heading into the Anteres Building.

“No. There’s no guessing about it. I am right.” She said to him as she led the two of them into the parking lot Alec arrived in yesterday. “I just need to get something out of the car real quick. I think we should get the shuttle that’s running into the city.”

Alec didn’t bother responding, he nodded in agreement. He was going to be living on campus for a year so it made sense that he should get to grips with what was going to be available to him.

The shuttle that Mari mentioned was a bus that ran in a continuous loop that started on the college campus and hit the most important places that the students were likely to need. It took them to a nearby retail park that had most of the stores that they might need if they nearby stores didn’t have what they were looking for. As well as this, it stopped in the bus station in the city centre, providing a way for students at the college to get around for free.

Alec surveyed the parking lot while Mari reached inside the car, searching for whatever she was looking for. While he and Mari weren’t talking, he found his mind wandering to Magnus, that he met yesterday. Magnus had told him that he would see him around, but one major thing stood out from that. How would it even be possible that Magnus would know that? Neither one of them knew what the other one was studying and what their timetable was. Alec knew nothing about Magnus, other than he was presumably friends with the red headed girl. And the only thing that Magnus knew about Alec was that he was in the Aquila building. So, unless there was some lucky meeting, it was unlikely that they were even going to see each other again. 

Something inside Alec sank as he thought about that. There was something about Magnus that he found… intriguing. It might have had something to do with the reckless driving or the friends. But Alec hoped that he would see Magnus again, although he wasn’t entirely sure why. There was just a part of him the wanted to see him again.

He looked over to Mari, who had just locked the car door and was walking back towards him with a new back over her shoulder. She began to lead to two of them to the shuttle stop where there were already two people waiting. Not two minutes later the shuttle turned up, a modest bus, not particularly large or fancy but it got the job done. The journey into the city wasn’t anything to write home about either, smooth enough with a few, literal, bumps in the road. And fifteen minutes later, the shuttle stopped in the city centre.

\---

The two of them disembarked into the bus station. Under a sign that wrote ‘Camarrah Bus Station’ Alec saw that the place was full of life and far different from what he was expecting. From the drive through the city to get to his campus, the city was completely different. It still wasn’t quite New York City, but from the ground up, it was a close second. People bustled from one place to another with little regard for the others around them, but swiftly moving from side to side to avoid one another. Having only seen the exterior of any buildings on the way up, Alec wasn’t expecting the sheer grandeur of the bus station alone.

“Do you wanna go get lunch somewhere?” Mari asked as she walked over to a stand to pull out a map of the city.

“Yeah, let’s do it.” Alec was still a little unsure of… well everything. He was with a girl he didn’t know very well in a city that he didn’t know very well. “I don’t really know any places around here so, unless you do I’m kinda just going to be following you around.”

“I don’t mind, I’m great at being in charge and in control.” Mari winked. “So, we’ll be fine, don’t worry about it.” The two of them headed towards the exit closest to them. The bus station was divided with an exit at either side encasing the large, grey mass that was the station itself. 

They made their best effort to avoid as many people as possible. It was easy enough for Mari being small and slender, although it was more of a challenge for Alec. Sure, he was taller than most of the people he was trying to avoid, but he still wasn’t that light on his feet and was getting pushed around as he moved towards the exit. Normally, Alec was better on his feet, but normally he was given a little more time than Mari had given him heading off, almost without him.

Alec could see that Mari’s blonde hair had made it to the exit while he was still pushing his way over there. The longer it took him to make it there, the more he wished that he hadn’t come outside with Mari at all. As he made it to the exit, the crowd seemed to immediately disperse as the doorway opened onto a plaza with a statue of a single stone sphere in the centre surrounded by stone benches. Mari had already made her way over to the statue and looked to be reading the plaque below it. Alec promptly joined her, exhaling a few times. He felt like could finally breathe properly. 

He looked around the plaza a little. An accordion player stood playing in one corner, passers-by dropping the occasional coin into a hat that lay on the floor before him. A little further around, a young girl, who looked to be a similar age to Mari and himself, sat on one of the benches with a book that had the words ‘modern classics’ written on the front. Alec turned around the other way to see a man stood behind an easel, painting what looked to be one of the buildings around the plaza. This was a city for culture, for the arts.

Alec proceeded to look down to plaque that read:  
“Just as the sun will rise again tomorrow and the world will keep on turning. Every person will rise again, every day. The dark day may come. But it will pass and the sun will rise once again.”

“That seems like it’s just repeating itself, doesn’t it?” Mari said to Alec, not looking up.

“But it’s sweet, at least.” Alec said. “There’s nothing wrong with a little positivity being put into the world.” Alec almost felt a little strange saying something like that, just because it was the kind of thing he would probably have gotten a bunch of crap from his friends back home for saying.

“That’s true.” She began to walk off, away from the bus station. Only this time, she actually waited for Alec before bolting off.

The two found themselves walking down a smaller, one way street. The street was still surprisingly busy with people finding their way both way down the street, occasionally broken apart by a car slowly driving its way down.

Within moments, Alec found himself on the floor after crashing into someone a good head or two shorter than him. As the two of them ended up on the floor, it seemed to Alec that the sidewalk had opened up to allow space for them. Looking up, Alec noticed the person he crashed into. Their hair was the first thing he saw. It was a bright orange colour that stood out from the grey of the street.

“Sorry.” They both said at the same time, the orange haired girl still on the ground. Alec stood back up and offered the girl a hand.

“Thank you.” She said, brushing down her beige jacket before looking up at Alec. “You look familiar, do I know you?”

“I don’t think so.” Alec said, wracking his mind. Could she be the same orange haired girl that he caught a glimpse of in Magnus’ car? “I only just moved here, like literally yesterday. So, I doubt it.”

“Just to the city or?”

“A little out. I’m starting school pretty soon.”

“No way? Me too.” The girl’s tone lightened. “Are you, as well?” She asked Mari.

“Yeah. I’m Mari, by the way. Fine Arts. This is Alec. He never told me what he was studying.”

“Clary. Nice to meet you both. And same, I’m doing fine arts as well.” Clary reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone and put it to her ear. “Hello?” She mouthed ‘I’ve gotta go, see you around’, to the two of them before she walked off in the opposite direction that Alec and Mari were originally heading. They both watched her walk away around a corner, towards the bus station.

“Would you look at that, I might have made another friend already. Looks like I’m going to have to leave you here now.” Mari laughed to herself. “I’ve made another friend, you know the rules.” Alec stood there as Mari spoke to him. His mind blank, he had literally zero idea what she was talking about. “I’m joking. Don’t worry.” She chuckled. “I’m guessing that you never really got out much before you got here, did you? Parents not let you out of the house?”

“Uh, yeah. I guess. Pretty much like that. My parents are really over protective of me. I’m kind of surprised they haven’t called a bunch of times yet. I mean my friends weren’t exactly boring, my parents just didn’t want me doing what they did.”

“Yikes. Bet you didn’t have much before you came here. I guess I was lucky.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Well, only having one parent around kind of limits what they can stop you from doing. Maybe I’ll tell you about it someday when I’m old. We can’t all be wild forever.”

“I’d like that.” Alec said. “Shall we?” He gestured towards the end of the street, towards the end that they were originally walking to.

\---

The end of the street opened up into a larger street that was littered with artisanal looking restaurants. Small, hole in the wall style places, the type that is prone to change almost week to week with whatever trends pass through the city. Exposed brick covered a large chunk of the establishments across the street from the two. As the looked from side to side, the side of the road they stood on was lined with stores. Matching the restaurants across the street, small, boutique style places. The types you wouldn’t find in any other city than the one they resided in.

While it was a city for the arts, it looked as though the street they had made it to was the epicenter of what the city was all about. There looked to be people of all walks of life making their way up and down both sides of the street.

Alec was beginning to rethink the whole ‘it’s no New York City’. Perhaps Mari was only taking him to the nicer areas, but everything he saw seemed to make the city more and more desirable. He was almost expecting someone to walk along and say: “Hey, it’s your lucky day! I’m here to give you everything you ever wanted.” Especially with the way that things were going for him. If he was lucky he may even find the love of his live, or at least, have a little fun during his time. The end of the street looked to be lined with bars, the street that was likely to come alive during the night time.

The two crossed the street, towards the restaurants. Alec wasn’t really in any mood to be making a decision as to where they ate so he left the decision to Mari. It was unlikely that she didn’t really know any of the places, but Alec was in no mood to make any kind of decision for this. She chose a sandwich place called ‘Two Sisters’ that had a whole four tables inside and three bar stools. 

Alec sat down first as Mari went to order for the two of them. The menu was small so he told her what he wanted and she walked to the counter. Alec watched out of the window, seeing all of the people that walked passed. Mari returned to Alec and sat down next to him, a woman brought them their food a few minutes later.

“So, Clary, huh?” Mari started. “Think I’ll actually be friends with her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Alec sighed to himself. “I think I might have seen her before, yesterday, before you got here. I saw car go by really quickly, around a bunch of people as well. I think Clary was in that car.”

“Was she driving it?”

“No, she, she was sat in the back with M- some other person. And there were two people in the front as well.”

“Wow, friends already. I guess maybe she’s come to college with people that she already knows.”

“Who knows. If you’re lucky, you could be in that friend group soon.” He neglected to mention the fact that he was pretty sure when he saw Magnus go passed in the car that it was Clary next to him. He didn’t really want to mention Magnus to anyone that he might meet over the coming time. A thought that occurred to him was that if he DID see Magnus again, then maybe he would end up in that group as well.

“You’re not wrong, but I don’t know anything about Clary, or anyone of those people in that car. They’re probably her friend and for all we know they could be the worst people in the world. I know that’s over dramatic, but you know what I mean.”

“I’m sure they’re not that bad. And I’m sure she’s fine. Kind of seems like you might be overthinking this, especially when we haven’t even had any classes yet.”

“That’s fair.”

After finishing up and paying for their food, the two of them headed out of Two Sisters and continued down the road towards all the bars. Mari told Alec that that road was the last one that she wanted to see that say before they headed back, she was interested in finding out whether anyone else had moved into their floor, if they had any new neighbours.

People were beginning to set up signs outside of a few of the bars as the two walked passed. The front of a few of the bars looked to have neon signs, ready to illuminate the darkness come night time. The street stretched on for longer than Alec expected it to and some of the bars began to look sizable. Taking up almost as much space as two or three of the restaurants from the previous street. Undoubtedly, the street was where most of if not all of the nightlife was held, for the city. There were bound to be smaller, calmer places around.

Following a walk up and down the street, the two of them agreed that it was fairly pointless for them to have gone down there in the first place, being that nothing was going to be open for a good chunk of time and it was likely that the place was going to come alive once the sun went down. The two of them also agreed that they were just going to head back towards the bus station. They hadn’t spent a particularly long time out in the city, but at the same time, the moving in weekend wasn’t exactly the best time to be taking a look around the city since it was so unlikely that any of the people that were moving in would have made any friends yet. Alec thought to himself that he might have gotten lucky, meeting Mari when he did. It was likely that some of the people moving in around him could have been completely anti-social, although not too different from him and just never make friends with any of them.

Back at the plaza with the sphere statue dubbed by the locals as simply Sphere Plaza, the accordion player was still going strong, only having moved his position a little further away from the station entrance. A man and a woman, both with black hair, roughly the same length had both set up easels and had begun to paint the cityscape that they could see.

Alec and Mari made their way back into the station and to the stand that was designated for the Winchester shuttle. An old woman was stood in front of them, while it was a shuttle that served specifically for the college student, it still functioned as a bus for anyone who needed it. The shuttle was due to run approximately every half hour and as time had it for the two of them, it arrived less than a minute after they arrived.

\---

Campus was busier than when the two of them left. Alec had overheard from someone working that Saturday was always the busiest day for the weekend for students to move in. There were people coating the parking lot and a line had formed at the shuttle stop.

Mari told Alec that there was something she needed to drop off something in her car before her mother arrived to pick it up and told Alec that if he wanted she would see him later. Before leaving they exchanged phone numbers and basically agreed that they were now friends. Mari walked off towards the car park, almost disappearing into the people. Alec decided that he would head back to his room, since there wasn’t particularly anything else he was wanting to do for the day.

As he walked off, back towards the Aquila building, he noticed Clary again. She was sat on a bench with another girl that he didn’t recognise. Although, there were literally only three people in the entire college he recognised, Clary being one of them, so of course he wasn’t going to recognise her. He came to the conclusion that they were probably already friends and didn’t want to intrude on their conversation. What he didn’t notice was that as he was walking away from Clary and the other girl was that Clary did notice Alec as he went passed. She considered leaving the girl she was with, but from the expression on Alec’s face she didn’t want to talk to him in case he was in a bad mood. As her friend left, she sent a text saying ‘he’s come back – go for it’ to someone and walked off towards the Anteres building.


	3. Is It Any Wonder?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec comes closer to uniting with Magnus again as he gains a new acquaintance in someone who seems to be in with the in crowd of the college and invites him to a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3, my friends! I've just started back at university this week and as I post this I have a job interview tomorrow morning, so here's hoping things go well for me.

Alec didn’t hear from Mari for another few hours after she went off to her car. Not until she returned to her room and texted Alec saying that he should let her know if he wanted to hang out again or if he met anyone else on their floor. 

As Alec returned back to the building and his floor, there were a group of jocks that he couldn’t quite tell whether any of them were actually moving into the building or not. While there were a few suitcases and bags on the floor in the foyer of the building, there were far too many people stood in that group for them all to be moving in. Through all the yelling and the word ‘bro’ that he must have heard at least five times as he walked passed them, trying to avoid all of them, he did hear that at least one of them were going to be moving into the building. He just hoped that none of them were going to be on his floor or anywhere remotely close to him. There was nothing wrong with jocks, in fact, there was a lot right with them, physically at least. It was just the ones that got overly boisterous when they came together that he was put off by. And as bad as it was to stereotype people, clearly the ones that were moving in were going to be doing some kind of sport while they were at college.

One thing Alec hadn’t planned on, however, was that one of the jocks felt the need to stop Alec in his tracks in the stairwell. Or at least, that was the case in Alec’s head. When in actual fact the man was just stood a little way away of the rest of the group and didn’t actually realise he was blocking the staircase.

“Excuse me?” Alec said in a quiet voice, not wanting to get the attention of the entire group. The man turned to look at Alec. The first thing that Alec noticed was the white t-shirt he was wearing that was clearly a size too small for him and the dark ginger hair that, while it was short, it didn’t look like he took too much time to do anything with and his deep brown eyes. The man looked Alec up and down.

“How haven’t I seen you before?” His voice was deep. A voice that Alec could almost feel in his chest.

“W-wha?” Alec began to stutter.

“I thought I knew everyone who was on our team?”

“I don’t- I’m not on any team.” Alec wasn’t entirely sure what he meant. “I just moved in yesterday.” The man folded his arms, the muscles on his chest being pushed together by his arms. Alec controlled himself, mostly. Only staring for a second.

“That would explain it.” He raised his eyebrows. “Me and my friends were in the Dhuna building last year, but we moved off to a private place this year. But one of my buddies has been sent to this dump instead of the Dhuna.”

“O-kay?” Alec had no idea where the man was going with what he was saying, but he didn’t want to ask him to hurry up in fear of being beaten up.

“Right. Sorry. My name’s Travis.”

“Alec.” He said almost waving his hand.

“Sorry, I stopped you ‘cuz you look like you’d be a good fit for the team.” Alec also wasn’t about to question the fact that he wasn’t getting any more specific than just ‘team’. He assumed that Travis was referring to a sports team of some kind. “Anyways, we’re having a party next Friday. You should come, see if you’d be a good fit.” Again. Alec was wondering what he meant by that. Like a good fit for his friend group, or the sports team? “Hey, gimme you phone so I can get your number and I’ll let you know where it is.” The whole thing happened so fast it almost didn’t feel real to Alec. “Cool. See you Friday? Oh, and bring someone, if you want.”

“Uhh- sure?”

Moments after Travis returned Alec’s phone to him, he walked off with the rest of the group, along with all the suitcases they had with them. He wasn’t quite sure how what just happened actually happened. But it certainly did and he had just willingly given his phone number to a very attractive person that he had only just met and been invited to a party at who knows where.

He took a moment to gather his thoughts before returning to his room before texting Mari what happened.

Most of the responses were Mari’s disbelief in the events that actually happened. Alec agreed on the front of being invited to the party, but wasn’t so blown away by the prospect of being asked to join the team. Especially taking his height into consideration. Alec may not have been as bulky as Travis, but he wasn’t skinny or lanky by any means, either. He would have actually liked to have found out just what specific team it was that Travis wanted him to join, or try out for. Really Alec just wanted an explanation.

Alec thought to himself that he actually had some socials plans which came as quite an oddity. He thought that it wouldn’t have happened as soon as it did, although at the same time he was expecting that his sociability would likely peter out as time went on. Once Travis and all of his friends saw that he was probably nothing like them, it was likely that they would never ever speak to him again anyway. Perhaps it was just something that he had to get himself through so that he never would have to do it again. Although, having never been to an actual party in his life, Alec was relishing in the thought that there was someone who deemed him decent enough to actually invite somewhere. Or maybe it was just that Travis wanted to get as many people to his party as possible, that was the more likely scenario. The more people he had there, the more he could weed out the people he didn’t want to associate with. And Alec had almost the same mindset as that.

\---

The following morning Alec was shocked awake by the heavy buzz of his phone. To his own behest he reached to see what it was. To his own disappointment it was only an update from the college, welcoming him and reminding him of the things on his timetable for the coming week. 

Sighing, he placed his phone back down and collapsed back down into his bed. All he did was walk around the city a little, nothing particularly taxing, yet he found himself feeling like he was recovering from being physically exhausted. As he lay in place, he let out a sigh of relief, thinking about how he didn’t actually have to do anything particularly taxing for the coming few days.

He saw Mari all but one day between Monday and Thursday, quite often, they had to walk in the same direction for their welcome classes so they would walk together there and back, going into one another’s room. They were told that the people they would meet in their welcome classes were very rarely going to be the people in their actual classes so, while there was nothing stopping them from making friends with the people in there, it was unlikely that they would see them that much.

Come Wednesday, Alec found himself sat on the floor in Mari’s room. None of the other people who moved onto their floor felt the need to introduce themselves to either Alec or Mari, maybe they had done with one another, but Alec and Mari met none of them. Neither of them were particularly eager to meet the person in the room to the left of Mari due to the strange noises coming from their room.

Alec still found himself thinking about Magnus while Mari was talking to him. He thought that maybe there was a chance that he would get to see Magnus at the party Friday, although from the looks of Travis compared to Magnus, he wasn’t entirely sure that the two would get along, or that the two social circles would mix.

“And that’s why I decided that I would go on a rampage and push my mother of a cliff.” Mari said to Alec who wasn’t listening in the slightest and didn’t come to attention until Mari prodded him.

“What?” The word barely sounded legible, more like a grunt than anything.

“What yourself. What’re you thinking about? You look lost in thought.”

“I’m just thinking about someone.”

“Travis? Clary?” She took a moment before continuing. “Me?”

“No, none of them. Someone else. It was someone I met before you moved in. I was on the other side of the campus, by the other two dorm buildings, around the back. Someone was driving around campus, almost dangerously fast and yet still managed to get around everyone safely. A little after I saw the car, I was going to see what was a little further on from the back of those two buildings then the car pulled up. But there was only one person in it.”

“The person you’ve been thinking about?”

“Yeah.” Alec almost sighed as he spoke. “He said that his name was Magnus. And that I would see him again at some point. Which I know sounds really cryptic but he was just really… he was… just…” Alec began stammering and could no longer get his words out properly as he continued to try and talk about Magnus.

“Wow.” Mari attempted to sound like she wasn’t as interested in what Alec was saying, although failing miserably. “He sounds kind of…-“

“-Magical…” Alec spoke quietly.

“What?”

“Nothing. He just. I don’t know how it would be possible that I would see him again, he said that he was in his second year and not even living on campus.”

“Well, does he know where you live?”

“I told him that I was in this building, that was it. And I don’t think he’s the kind of person that would go through all the trouble of trying to find out which room is mine just for me.” Alec pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them.

“You never no. If he really does want to see you again. And if he was that serious about it you never know. Especially if he is magical.”

“Shut it.” Alec gave a pathetic attempt in trying to conceal a smile as his cheeks began to burn red.

“Look at that. If he can do that to your face, then it must be true.” Mari laughed. “I bet he’s like a wizard or a warlock or something.”

“Okay, please stop.” Mari threw her hands up at Alec’s request.

“Fine.” She sounded almost disappointed. “Hey, by the way, Clary told me that she would be going to that party this Friday. So, you might not have to just be stuck with me.”  
“Considering you’re my only friend at this point, you’d do well to get rid of me.” Alec almost reeled in how strange that sounded.

“I have that impact on people, Alec. Also, did Travis ever let you know where the place actually is. Because if he didn’t I can always get the address from Clary.”

“You might have to actually do that, because I have heard nothing.” When he really thought about it, Alec wasn’t torn up about this in the slightest since it just meant that he had no obligations to other people before he even started any of his classes. It wasn’t that he was actively trying to get out of the party. It’s just that he wouldn’t be upset if Travis never actually gave him the address so he wouldn’t actually have to go.

One thing that Alec left out of his story about Magnus was Clary. Or the girl that he thought was Clary. In reality, he wasn’t sure whether it was Clary who was sat next to Magnus in the car, so what did it matter that he didn’t tell Mari about it. Even though it seemed like her and Clary were on the road to become friends. If he wasn’t certain about saying whether it was Clary or not, what was the point. On the flip side, however. If Clary was going to this party and it had been her with Magnus – did that mean that there was the chance Magnus would be there as well. The more Alec kept that thought in his mind, the more he was hoping that Travis would text him.

\---

Thursday came around and there was still no text from Travis. While Alec assumed that the party wouldn’t be starting, at the very earliest nine, he still hoped that Travis would have gotten back to him beforehand. If not for the party, even something about the sports team he mentioned.

Alec had been in a welcome class that morning and was reading up on one of the books for the class, waiting for Mari to get back. She told Alec that if Travis hadn’t gotten back to him then she would get the address from Clary instead. When he thought about it, Clary telling Mari that she could give her the address gave Alec the idea that it was Clary in the car, he was becoming more certain of that. And that meant that Magnus was going to be at the party.

A little later in the day Alec was interrupted by Mari knocking on his door. When he answered she let herself in, the good thing was Alec wasn’t doing anything that could be suspicious or strange when she walked in. Without giving him much time to do anything she pulled out her phone.

“I got it.” She started. “Clary gave me the address.” Alec didn’t really know what to say to this. He didn’t know whether he should be thankful that Mari got the address, or disappointed that Travis hadn’t gotten back to him. “Is it any wonder how I managed to do it? Honestly, I’m such a social butterfly and I didn’t even realise it.”

“You’ll be running this place in no time.” Alec’s voiced oozed sarcasm.

“And when I do. You can be my vice president.”

“At a college?” Alec crossed his arms. “You’ll be president? Not the Dean?”

“I’ll change it.” Mari said, realising the error. “I’ll make it so I’m referred to as the president. And I’ll give you a crown, or maybe a tiara. I bet you’d look good with something sparkly on you.”

After another five minutes of Mari telling Alec her manifesto for when she became president, she told Alec that she needed to go back to her room and make a start on some sketches for one of her classes.

Alec sighed as Mari left and within moments of him closing the door behind her he heard his phone buzz from across the room. Having spoken to his parents the day before, he didn’t think that it would be them and it would be highly unlikely it was Mari. She would be more likely to just turn back around and come back into his room.

His phone flicked back into life. The name ‘Travis’ displayed on screen, followed by an address underneath his name. He had actually come through with what he said. Presumably he was waiting a little while to tell Alec. After everything, Mari didn’t need to get the address from Clary. From Travis’ name to Mari’s, he texted her telling her that Travis came through with the address. The addresses matched as well. Neither of them were being lied to in any way, through Alec’s paranoia he thought that perhaps they were just being nice.

\---

Friday came around. The day of the party. Alec had been right, it didn’t start until nine-thirty. So, the two of them had the entire day to get ready, although getting ready for Alec constituted as getting change and putting on a presentable shirt, dark coloured of course. As for Mari, he didn’t know how long that she would take. But from every time that Alec had seen her, she looked pretty similar and most of the items in her wardrobe were all starkly similar to one another. He assumed there was the chance that she wouldn’t take long to get ready either.

\---

The address of the party was a little off campus. Not far enough that it was worth waiting for the shuttle, but a fifteen to twenty-minute walk away from the far end of campus.

Alec had opted for a pair of black skinny jeans and a dark blue button-up shirt. Mari looked to have made the same amount of effort as Alec, donning a black romper, leggings and an acid-washed denim jacket. Her in the same shoulder length style. Alec had chosen a pair of black shoes, that looked far too smart to be going to a college party. Mari, on the other hand, a pair of white sneakers.

From Travis’ text, Alec didn’t have to bring anything but himself. Had he been told to bring something, there was a good chance that he would have just gone against everything he had thought so far and just not gone to the party. He would rather have that than risk disappointing a bunch of people that he assumed were going to be the more powerful people in the college.

The two of them made light chatter as they walked, nothing heavy. Normally Alec would have been comfortable walking in silence, but having never been to a party of this stature and not wanting to admit that to Mari, he was doing it to ease his nerves. He had just assumed, from the moments that he met Mari, that she was more versed it parties. Not just because of how she looked, just the fact that he assumed that everyone was more versed in it than him.

Music, the sounded as if it was coming from a few streets away could be heard. The two walked into a neighbourhood that was ever decreasing in quality. Large houses lined each side of the street with a large proportion of them looking unkempt, clearly looking as though they housed students. And likely, it was the and third year students that lived in them. They turned onto a street where the house at the very end of the street was illuminated. A slight decline in the street led to the house. It stood on its own, not on either side of the street, but at a turnaround at the very end.

From the state of all the houses, all the people that lived in the houses on the street looked as though they would be at the party. Alec began the walk on the decent towards his fate. The sounds grew louder as they drowned out his own thoughts. Then before he knew it, they were on the front lawn. Everything was already a wreck.


	4. Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Alec just moments away from the party, will he find Magnus? Or will Alec be in way over his head?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tend to post these chapters on a night shortly before I go to bed. And tomorrow morning, I've got uni and then I have to head immediately to the train station because I'm going to see Lorde live! So, I'm pretty jazzed about that, but I won't really get to properly get back to my computer/laptop until the next evening. Please be kind in that time lmao.

The bassline of the music wove its way down the street, through the tarmac until it reached Alec’s feet. Lights flashed on and off on a balcony of the house. From the distance the two of them were from the house, the lights looked like a technicolour dream cloth that shot beams of light around the street, landing on the nearby houses. Alec almost couldn’t believe that it was real. It was nothing like he expected to see.

Compared to the other houses on the street, the flashing beacon at the end looked so much nicer than the others. It might have had something to do with the lights. But, minus the people on the front lawn, it looked far nicer than the others. It was as if it was well taken care of, unlike the others. Even the people on the lawn, making a mess of the house, couldn’t take away from the fact the house looked to house someone of stature. Was a lord or a lady in the house? Perhaps at one point in its timeline, although at this moment, it was a cesspool of sin. Any lords and ladies would be committing unspeakable acts inside.

Growing larger and larger, the house increased in stature and power almost as if it was giving off a strange aura. Alec balled his fists as they got closer. The two weren’t moving quickly, but as they passed each house, Alec noticed that none of them had any lights on, not even a kitchen or bedroom light. It gave him the impression that where they were headed to was siphoning the power from the rest of the street. The party was a castle, and the rest of the houses were the poor villagers, the ones without power or plumbing.

The music was more audible now. And the occasional scream could be heard. It was never a scream of terror, though. It always came from a place of success or drunken excitement. The two of them were no more than three houses away from the party. The colours had become more fluid than from when they were further away, they flashing lights blended into one another as the bass almost signalled the time a person could notice the colour change itself.

Two houses away. A group of, what looked to be student athletes, barrelled out onto the front lawn. It wasn’t even considered to be late for the party, early in fact and they were all already drunk and most likely, had a loss of certain inhibitions. One of them strayed from the pack and stumbled over to two girls stood talking. Neither looked amused that an inebriated chunk of meat had interrupted what they were talking about. While it couldn’t have been overly important, neither one wanted it to be interrupted by unwarranted drunkenness. They quickly cast him away, with his friend pointing fingers and almost howling as he returned to them.

One house away. Alec didn’t want any of the group to notice Mari or himself, he wasn’t prepared to deal with any of their bullshit just yet. He was also hoping that Mari wouldn’t leave his night, or at least, not leave him alone for an extended period of time. The music could almost be described as deafening, or a public menace. Although with it looking like the entire street could have been at the party, it didn’t seem like it was going to change any time soon.

They were here. Or, on the lawn at least.

“Do you think we can just walk in?” Mari asked. The shred of Alec’s nervousness he previously had were seemingly blown away and replaced.

“Well those guys almost tore the front door off and it doesn’t seem like anyone in there is in a rush to close it.” He looked around, in almost a full three-sixty. There were a few groups of people who had been walking down the street behind them. One of the groups, two guys and a girl, walked straight passed Mari and himself and walked immediately inside. “And no one stopped them.” It was the thought of Magnus possibly being inside that changed how he felt. The nervousness was still there, only this time he didn’t feel as fearful as he was before.

“Alright.” Mari threw her hands up in protest. “Lead the way – which I am only saying because you are taller than me and can probably take more hits than me.”

“What are you thinking is going to happen in there?” Mari shrugged at what Alec said.

“Dunno, fistfights, maybe a little illegal gambling or money laundering.” Alec raised a brow. “Y’know, the normal things you’d find in any good jazz club.” She said as she walked passed Alec, urging him to follow her. And he did. Through the front door, into the dazzling lights.

\---

For as loud as the music seemed on the outside, it didn’t seem nearly as loud on the inside. Although, as soon as Alec stepped in the house, it was as if a veil within the house enveloped him in its grasp. Working its way in through his ears and into his brain. The bass thundered through his body, pounding through him. It was a feeling he had never experienced before and it felt almost otherworldly to him. The lights that were flashing from the outside, subsided one the inside of the house to a much more bearable rainbow hue that cycled slowly through all the colours and the music thumped.

To the left of the doorway, two people stood kissing. One, dark haired, ran their fingers through the hair of the other as they pressed harder against one another, soliciting a moan from the dark haired one. Alec averted his eyes as quickly as possible to see another group of, what he assumed to be, student athletes in the lounge that jumped up and down and chest bumping one another repeatedly, spilling copious amounts of alcohol onto the ground. It probably wasn’t the best thing to be thinking, but Alec first thought of how difficult that would be to clean.

Alec turned away from them and looked to the staircase where he noticed Travis walking down. He had ditched the white t-shirt from last time and traded it for a black one that clung to his chest equally well. As he reached the Alec and Mari at the bottom of the stairs he embraced Alec with one arm, then proceeded to hand him a red cup with the other, then did the same for Mari. He went on to introduce himself to Mari and told Alec that he was glad he made it. This all made Alec feel slightly less uncomfortable, knowing that Travis wasn’t just screwing with him.

“You should try meet the guy who’s throwing this thing, man. He’s like crazy cool.” Travis said to the pair of them, stumbling a little to the side and bracing himself on a staircase banister. “And he organised this whole thing.”

“Wow, really?” Mari said, clearly sounding like she was just entertaining what Travis was saying through his drunken state.

“Yeah. And… Alec?” Travis started almost like he had forgotten Alec’s name for a moment. “I saw him earlier and he asked me if you were coming, so I think he wants to meet you or something.”

“Me? Why?” Alec’s tone landed firmly between confused in disbelief.

“What? Are you shocked your non-existent reputation precedes you?” Mari said, smirking.

“I don’t know, man. You’ll have to find him. Although…” Travis turned around to look upstairs, then to his left and right. “… I don’t know where he is anymore. He was upstairs last time I saw him.”

“Thank you.” Travis began to walk off as Alec spoke. “I’ll see you around?” Alec said, causing Travis to turn around. Looking at Alec, he nodded and winked at him as he disappeared off into a crowd towards the back of the house.

The crowds of people on the inside seemed far denser than they appeared outside. Travis looked to almost need to push his way though as he made it through into the kitchen.

Moments later Clary appeared from around the corner behind Mari, opposite of the place that Travis disappeared into. Her orange hair was contained into a tight ponytail with strands down either side of her face, she hugged Mari and introduced her to the girl that had walked up with her. Clary said hi to Alec again and apologised to him again for crashing into him before. The other girl introduced herself as Maia. With amber eyes and curly brown-gold hair that made it to the tip of her shoulders. Clary told Alec and Mari that she and Maia were old friends and they just happened to make it into the same college.

Mari was promptly whisked away by Clary towards the direction that Travis headed, leaving both Alec and Maia. There was protest from all of them, minus Clary, as they walked away. Maia might have been friends with Clary and at least knew Mari a little, but this was the first time she was meeting Alec.

“So, you know Clary?” Maia started. She spoke quietly, compared to the music and had to raise her voice a little as she spoke. Alec strained a little to hear her.

“I, uhh, ran into her near the bus station in the city. And I think she knows Mari, my friend, from class.”

“Oh, yeah. Clary told me about her. And I think she told me that her friend wanted to meet you. Unless there’s another Alec around?”

“Her- her friend?”

“Yeah. I’m sure she told me his name, but I don’t remember it. She mentioned something about him having nice hair, I think?” She shrugged and shook her head a little. “She said he would be here. So, I’m sure he’s around here.” As the lights changed their hue to the yellow, Alec noticed the bags under Maia’s eyes.

The two of them stood in silence for a few moments until Clary returned with Mari. Neither of them looked any different, causing Alec to wonder what they went away for. Clary took off with Maia, who looked almost relieved to be going with Clary.

Mari looked back at Alec and opened her mouth as if to speak before she was interrupted by the group of student athletes they saw on the way into the house. Alec pointed over towards the kitchen, he was taller than the majority of the people in the house and could see an open doorframe that looked the lead out into a back yard. She nodded at him as they headed into the crowd. Alec’s height had the perk of easily being able to make his way through the crowd, Mari, on the other hand, had a harder time, despite the fact that she was clung onto Alec’s arm. The crowd was thicker than Alec was expected, but the two of them still managed to make it through.

\---

The cool air outside passed Alec’s cheek as he stepped onto the lawn. It felt like a completely different world from the inside of the house. The music that pounded the inside of the house reverbed through the ground, but the noise level was tolerable. It was possible, outside, to talk to someone and be able to have a decent understanding of what people are saying. More lights were strung around the back yard, around a multitude of poles that had been stuck into the ground. They offered a similar changing hue to the rest of the house only on a far more subdued scale. The whole yard was calmer than the house.

A few groups milled around the yard, including Travis with a group that Alec thought to be the group that he had initially saw in the Aquila building. He thought he recognised one or two of them. They were all in a similar state that Travis was and they were the largest source of noise out in the yard. Occasionally one of the other groups would look over to Travis’ group when they would occasionally begin to shout.

“It’s so much nicer out here. Like I can actually breathe.” Mari said. Alec took a moment to reply. His thoughts had turned to Magnus once again. Clary and Maia had all but confirmed that Magnus was at the party and it was likely that Alec might get to see him at some point during the night.

“Yeah. I’m just wondering how long until someone pulls one of us away again?”

“Sorry about leaving you a little back there.”

“I could tell you didn’t really want to go, I don’t blame you.”

“I know you better than I know Clary. She’s nice enough but I don’t want to really hang out with her alone just yet. I’ve not known her long enough.”

“What about me?” Alec smiled. “You’ve not known me much longer?”

“But I’ve been around you more than Clary. And I know more about you than her. So, I can deal with you.” Mari folded her arms. “What about you? You seem to be making friends with some of the guys around here awfully quickly. And this mystery man who wants to see you?”

“Yeah, I’m not really sure myself. I think he’s a friend of Clary’s but that’s all I could tell you.” It wasn’t too far from the truth since he knew next to nothing about Magnus. Really, he knew more about Travis than he did Magnus. But he was intrigued by Magnus, but not with Travis.

“Well if he’s so mysterious do you think he would just show himself off to everyone? Or only the people he wants to?”

“What? Like he’s some kind of super powerful warlock or something?” Alec rubbed the exposed part of his arm as he looked around the back end of the house.

“Sure, why not? And what do you bet that he put together most of this. Either that, or he knows just about everyone here. Which wouldn’t surprise me.” Alec opened his mouth but closed it again and nodded slightly. His eyes moved to one of the windows on the top floor of the house. There was a young man looking down onto the yard, like he was looking at Alec, making him shift on his feet before looking back to Mari.

\---

A little time passed. The longer Alec and Mari spent at the house, the better that Alec felt. He was at the point where he was still in complete control, but there was a chance that if he began to talk to someone, that he might tell them something more personal than he normally would. The two of them were back outside in the yard after going back into the house for a little while and had now been re-joined by Clary and Maia. The music felt better and better as the vibrations surged through Alec’s body. Travis came and left the groups a few times through the night usually talking to one of the girls, he asked one of them whether Alec had seen they guy who wanted to talk to him as opposed to asking Alec himself. Multiple times, Alec found himself wanting to get closer and closer to Travis, each time her came over to the group. He controlled himself each time, only watching Travis as he left.

Alec considered why Magnus, who he had just assumed was the mystery man at that point, hadn’t come to try and find him. All the while, there was nothing really stopping him from going to try to find Magnus himself, but Alec didn’t fancy wandering around the house by himself when he knew next to none of the party goers. There was no real telling where he might end up, if he left the group. It wasn’t particularly a chance he was willing to take, at the moment, at least. Give it a little more time, introduce him to some more people or one specific person, then he might have left. But keeping that in mind, he would have had to become a social butterfly which he didn’t anticipate happening soon.

No longer knowing what time it was, Alec found himself back in the Cammarah City Centre with the three girls. The majority of the party guests had siphoned away from the house, with a large chunk of those heading towards the city and then off in their own directions. Although, most of them headed towards the street lined with bars, Alec and the group included.

The street, that was once docile in the daylight, was teeming with colour. Not too dissimilar from the house, lights coated the entire street. If you didn’t look upwards and notice the moon in the sky, you wouldn’t have known that it was night time. Neon signs and hued lights kept the street and all the people making their way up and down to their next destination illuminated in the night under otherworldly colours. Comparing the street to how it looked during the daytime, you wouldn’t believe it was the same place.

Alec and the group soon found themselves inside a bar and club aptly named ‘The Lens’. It wasn’t the largest place on the street, but it was well known for the bulky stained-glass partitions and walls that ran through the place. No special lights were used, other than the fact that they span, but they were placed just so their light shone through the glass that created a kaleidoscope on colour throughout the room.

‘This is unreal.’ Alec thought to himself as he moved with the music. There was no way he could tell which way he was moving. In and amongst everyone else in the club, the music worked its way through his mind. Beads of sweat trickled down his face, he could feel his shirt clinging to his chest and making his skin glisten. It showed off his body more than the shirt would have done had he not been as hot as he was. While he wasn’t as big and bulky as some of the people around me, but his lean, athletic body looked amazing to those who could see it. And there was one specific person who could see it. Stood upon a set of stairs a little higher than Alec and his group was Magnus.

Magnus smiled as his eyes met Alec’s. A stuttering feeling rushed through Alec as he looked over to Magnus. The two stared at one another for a moment before Magnus beckoned Alec over to him, before turning around and walking up the stairs. From when he left the house party, at the lowest level of his control, Alec had regained some self-control. His gut was telling him to follow Magnus. And it didn’t matter how much of his self-control he had, his gut was going to tell him the same thing regardless of his state.

“I’ll be back in a second.” He said, leaning to Mari. She nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

Through the crowd of people and kaleidoscope of colour, Alec pushed his way towards the stairs.

He reached the top of the stairs and turned around. The room was less populated than downstairs, but was still fairly busy. Alec was able to see through the crowd to see Magnus on the other side of the room. He wasn’t sure whether it was the lights or everything he had drank earlier but Magnus looked as though he was glittering. The two of them began to walk towards one another, looking into each other’s eyes.

Electronic sounds of the next song began to play as the two of them reached each other.

“Hi. Magnus?” Alec said. His mind whirred as he tried to think of something smart to say.

“Hello, Alec. We finally get to see each other again.” Alec was a little taller than Magnus, but given the situation, he felt far shorter.

“Yeah. I’ve been…” Alec’s breath fell short as he spoke. Magnus pressed a finger over Alec’s lips and Alec felt his face briefly tingle before his whole body flushed with butterflies.

“Don’t say anything. Dance with me.” Magnus’ voice was smooth and cut through the music, as if there was nothing else that Alec wanted to listen to. Before he had the chance to say anything else, Alec felt his phone buzz. His stomach dropped a little as he checked it. It was Mari asking: ‘you okay’ and he texted back quickly saying ‘found the mystery guy upstairs, I’m good’. And put his phone away.

‘A thousand eyes are watching  
But no one’s really talking to me  
A thousand eyes are watching  
And this is getting awkward now.’ 

The lyrics of the song played through Alec’s mind as Magnus took his left hand and their eyes locked once again. The chorus of the song began and the music thumped against the floor as Magnus and Alec moved in closer to one another. Alec felt a hand slide on to his back, luckily for him, the sweat was only down the front of his body and not the back.

Magnus’ skin was soft against Alec’s hand as he brushed his hand over Magnus’ cheek. It was smoother than Alec was expecting, although in his state, he wasn’t sure what he was expecting. The two were face to face and to Alec, Magnus’ looked to be glittering under the lights. As the two of them moved with one another to the beat of the song, hands were moved across both of their bodies. Alec felt himself spin around a few times and saw flashes of yellow as he saw Magnus.

With his body spinning, so did the whole world. It was everything he wanted. All of his thoughts of Magnus throughout culminated in this one moment. He never saw Magnus at the party, but that didn’t matter. He finally found him again. And after this there was a good chance that he would never see him again after tonight. But that was a thought that didn’t currently occupy his mind. He was more surrounded by the fact that whatever he had been feeling for Magnus throughout the week was finally being reciprocated back to him. Whether it was real or not, he didn’t care. It was magic.

The song transitioned into something equally electronic to the last. As Alec turned again, he noticed that Mari and the others had made their way upstairs, watching him from the other side of the room.

As the song hit the final chorus, confetti began to rain down from the ceiling.

‘This can only end one way  
Just do it now, I don’t wanna wait.  
This can only end one way  
Just do it now, I don’t wanna wait.  
Don’t be afraid.’

Through all the confetti, the world felt unreal. A kaleidoscope being created through shards of paper dreams that floated through the air, creating the perfect rainbow that held the two of them in place. Alec and Magnus stared at one another for what felt like an eternity. For something that should last an eternity. A hand pressed gently against Alec’s back as everything fell into place. They both lent in to one another. Lips parted as the two of them connected.

Everything was beautiful and nothing felt real. Alec had never been happier as he and Magnus kissed while the music played. There was nothing but the two of them and nothing would ruin this as they floated above the clouds.

‘This can only end way  
Just do it now, I don’t wanna wait.’


	5. Crystallise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec wakes up after the night before. His and Magnus' relationship move a little further forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... the plot, a little later on strays from just our college AU and some other major things come into play, knocking the college AU out the window. But that is still one main focus, that our characters are college characters.

(Saturday morning)

Sunlight. For the first time in his life, Alec didn’t want to see it. His curtains were pathetic. They stopped practically none of the sunlight.

Normally using an alarm, he decided against setting one after the previous night. Even the thought of an alarm going off sent Alec’s room spiralling as he closed his eyes again and clutched at his head. It felt as though miniature people were camped out in his head and using his forehead as the ground to slam a set of tent pegs in.

Alec reached over to his side table, eyes still closed, knocking various things around, in search of his phone. He didn’t dare turn it on too close to his eyes for fear they may never work properly again if they came into contact with such intense light. Light is meant to guide, not blind. Pressing a single button, light flushed his face, searing his eyes through his eyelids. He sighed to himself and held his phone further away from his face before braving the world by opening his eyes. Allowing his eyes to adjust a moment, he pressed the button again, with the light being far less harsh the second time around. He saw that he had a text from Travis that seemed like a poor attempt at a thank you. Although, with his own mind feeling like fire, he didn’t fancy trying to decode it any time soon.

Feebly poking at the screen with a thumb, he unlocked his phone that opened immediately up into his contacts. He thought nothing of it and tried to close his contacts and get rid of the text notification. He missed by a fairly sizable margin and managed to scroll down. Closing his eyes, he sighed to himself before opening them back up to see the list. He was under ‘M’. There were three entries. One being an old friend from New York, one being ‘Mom’. And the final one was new, staring him in the face at the top of the screen: ‘Magnus’.

There wasn’t much that Alec had remembered from the night before. He remembered the house party. Then The Lens, where he finally saw Magnus. The confetti. The kiss. And after that, there was nothing. 

His brain wracked to try and remember literally any detail that came after that. He thought to himself that after this kiss he must have got Magnus’ number, somehow. He had managed to make it home, at least. He felt in his pockets; everything he had taken out with him was still in there, so he hadn’t lost anything. And Mari was on his floor wrapped in a blanket. They both must have made it home together at some point the night before. And during that time, he would have had to leave Magnus somewhere.

Having his one previous experience with Magnus being by the back of the Dhuna, Alec knew Magnus wasn’t living on campus and assumed that he must have made it home, especially if he was friends with Travis. It was likely that he met back up with him and his friends and gone with him.

\---

Mari had awoken from her slumber. Given the time, past 2pm. Alec had begun to wonder whether she was actually ever going to wake up. She briefly went back to her room to get some painkillers, change and give Alec the chance to do the same. She returned shortly after, looking marginally more lifelike than she did previously. With her back against a wall and her pale blonde hair pushed back, Mari sat on Alec’s floor talking, trying to recall all the events from the night before.

“Travis paid for the cab, I think.” She said, rubbing her neck with one hand and clutching a mug of coffee with the other. “I assume that’s how we got home. Clary and Maia were asleep in my room and they left earlier.”

As Mari spoke, Alec was replaying the kiss over and over in his head. Through all of the fog of the night, that was the one event that stood out. He had a frozen image in his mind of him and Magnus that seemed to crystallise their bodies amidst all the confetti.

“They really like you, Alec.” Mari said, referring to Clary and Maia. Alec was still finding it difficult to formulate sentences that were too large.

“I kissed Magnus.” He said bluntly. As the words left his lips, he felt the confetti again. Falling to the ground, inside of him. The kaleidoscope seemed to have formed again when he spoke of it and when he thought of Magnus.

“I saw.” She laughed weakly. “In the confetti.”

“Yeah.” Alec’s face reddened. “It didn’t feel real, at all. It felt like something that should have been fiction.” He took a moment to breathe. “It felt like one of those things you see in movies, where the guy and the girl have that perfect moment where everything is right.”

“Are you the guy or the girl in this scenario?” Mari said almost instantly. “Come on, you walked into that.” She pointed her free hand at Alec.

“Fair point.” Alec stifled a smile. “I don’t get why, though.”

“Why what? Why you did it? Or…”

“No. Why me?”

“What do you mean ‘you’? Gotta get more specific for me here.”

“I mean, why did Magnus choose me of all people? You saw him, right? He looked amazing.” Mari grunted in agreement. “He could have chosen anyone?”

“Disappointed you couldn’t have played the college field before finding some you like?” Her voice took a sarcastic tone towards the end of her sentence.

“I- no, I. I just.” Alec’s face turned a brighter shade of red, so much so to counteract the paleness it previously held.

“Knew it.” Mari’s face broke out into a smile. “You know, Clary was rooting for that to happen. She told me that Magnus was talking about you before last night.”

“Really? Magnus- he was…” Alec’s voice seized as he spoke. Mari merely nodded in response.

“I don’t think it’s just one sided, Alec.”

Alec decided against telling Mari that he had mysteriously acquired Magnus’ phone number in the hopes that he could have uncovered when he got as he and Mari talked. Unfortunately, nothing that they spoke of made it any clearer. From what he gathered, at a certain point in the night, shortly after the two of them kissed, that was when they left. Taking that into account, Alec wasn’t sure when it happened.

All he was thinking suddenly was that whether it would be okay to text or call Magnus. Having never been in a similar situation, he didn’t know what the proper protocol was or whether it was appropriate or not.

An idea that crossed his mind was to wait out the time and wait for Magnus to text him first, or get Clary or Travis to talk to him on his behalf. Since there was very little chance that he was going to be able to form any coherent sentences around Magnus. All the alcohol he had consumed the night before was most likely the reason he was so confident around Magnus in the first place, although he knew it wasn’t to good idea to resort to alcohol any time he wanted to talk to or see Magnus.

There was one thing that was certain, however, the feeling of magic when he was with Magnus. It was nothing like he had ever felt before. It was a feeling that he was transported to an entirely different world. Perhaps it was only that situation that he was in the caused it, or maybe it was something more – that was what he didn’t know. What he did know was that Magnus being there was a major part of it, if not the biggest reason why.

This was also a thing that Alec didn’t expect to happen so quickly, or at all during his time at college. After being so held back before moving away, he had just assumed the same would happen even after he moved. But he had been proven wrong.

\---

Hours later, the sun had all but set and Alec had managed the brave feat of opening his curtains and let the final few drops of sunlight into his room. Mari had been in his room for most of the time that the two of them had been awake. Although, now she had decided that she would head back into her room to fully clean herself and make sure that she still had everything. She left Alec alone with the parting words of not doing anything stupid. She didn’t know all the intricate details of Alec’s personality so she just wanted to be sure that she had at least told him not to be stupid. She at least told him not to do something stupid.

As much as he was fighting against it, the urge to do something potentially stupid was fighting its way valiantly to the surface. And it won. But only to be supressed again by the buzz of Alec’s phone as he was walking over to it – to make the stupid decision.

What was it that stopped the decision? Magnus.

Alec didn’t know whether there was any protocol as for if he should text back or how long he should wait. Sure, he had watched a bunch of romantic movies that touched upon those sorts of things. Mari may have even forced him to watch a couple with her. But Alec stood there, frozen, with his phone in his hand staring at the message from Magnus. What was it that the message said?

‘I take it you’re surviving?’

Nothing remotely romantic or ground-breaking and yet it still managed to freeze Alec in place. His mind wracked thinking of what he should text back. Did he go for something funny? But he wasn’t a particular funny person and often came across cold in his texts.

‘Just about. I guess you are too?’ 

That was the profound thing he settled on before promptly putting his phone back down and laying on his bed. And not too long after he heard the buzz again.

After the first few messages, Alec began to find it remarkably easy to talk to Magnus, perhaps it was because he wasn’t actually anywhere near the man and so there was no reason for him to be able to seize up and say something dumb.

M: ‘I wasn’t expecting the confetti to start falling like it did’

A: ‘I know. It made the whole room seem unreal’

M: ‘I’m glad that it did. I don’t think it could have gone any better’

Alec couldn’t believe how easy the conversation was flowing between Magnus and himself. Even when he sent a message he thought was dumb and regretted, Magnus sent something back that made him instantly forget and stop thinking how dumb it was. He remained in one place, on his bed, texting Magnus for what felt like hours until the messages culminated into the one thing that Alec didn’t realise he wanted.

M: ‘If you’re free tomorrow? Would you like to go out to dinner, just us two?’

The way that it was phrased seemed far more casual than Alec could ever have expected. He thought to himself that it might have just been that Magnus seemed that cool he could just play it of as that, even if the opposite was the case.

Now he was just faced with the fact he needed to respond without sounding too desperate since he was suddenly aware of how new this was to him. And how much of a loser he was compared to Magnus. Magnus Bane, who seemingly had all of the friends in the world. Compared to Alec Lightwood, freshman in college, sat texting a boy on his bed and far more excited about it than he probably should have been.

A: ‘I’d love to. But you’ll have to pick the place since I don’t know anywhere yet.’

M: ‘That fine by me, I know just the place. I’ll see you tomorrow at 7, outside your building?’

A: ‘Sounds great’

As the last message was sent, Alec only felt like he went too far once, by saying he’d ‘love’ to. He thought to himself that it sounded a little much and probably a little over eager. Although that thought only lasted a second as it was replaced by the realisation that Magnus had asked him, of all people, on a date.

\---

After failing to resist the first urge to do something stupid he left his room to go tell Mari what had just happened.

“I was kind of hoping he’d ask you out.” Mari started.

“You were?”

“Well do you want to full story or the abridged version?”

“I’ll take either. I’ve got the time.” Alec shrugged.

“Okay, we’ll go somewhere in between then.” She sat down on her bed and drew the curtains. “When we were at the party, I noticed that you kept looking up at the house, so I was wondering if you had seen something in there. I never saw anything but obviously knew of Magnus because of Clary and what you had mentioned to me before. So, I was wondering whether it was Magnus you kept trying to look at in the house. Then I was a little disappointed when we left the house to go into the city without him, I hoped that he would have at least found us once while we were there.”

Alec joined her on the bed, but went for the far end, instead of the end she was sat at.

“Then once we were in town, in The Lens, when you told me you were headed upstairs, I wondered whether that was for someone or whether you just wanted to go somewhere quieter. Both of which I would understand. But after you’d been gone for a decent amount of time, I got Clary and Maia to come upstairs with me because I wanted to make sure you were okay. Then I saw you, pointed you out to them and then Clary said that it was Magnus that you were with. And, from where we stood, you looked to be having a pretty good time so I didn’t want to ruin that.” Mari sighed, finally, after she finished speaking, almost as if she refused to take many breaths as she spoke.

“You know I’m not giving you credit for not interrupting me, right?” Alec said, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. “From the sounds of it, you wouldn’t have even known that it was Magnus that I was with.”

“I’ll admit I was worried for a second when I saw you with him, because I didn’t know whether you’d given up on your morals already for some random guy.”

“Yeah, I don’t think Magnus is just ‘some random guy’. Or at least I’m hoping that he’s not.” Alec’s voice trailed off the further into the sentence he got, only for him to notice how complete enamoured with Magnus he sounded. When he took a second to think about it, it seemed like he was completely in love with Magnus.

“Aww.” Mari’s voice sounded almost sickly sweet. “You like him, don’t you?” After giving in to one stupid urge already. He resisted the one that told him to give a sarcastic retort back to her. All he gave in response instead was a nod. “The best part about this is I’m going to get the details from you and Clary, if he ends up talking to her about it.”

“I did not need that, Mari.” Alec pushed his head further back into the wall. “I already told him that he should pick where we go because I don’t know anywhere. But I don’t know where he’s going to pick, so I don’t know how I should dress. What if he picks somewhere that’s too classy for me?” Alec began to run a list of questions off faster than Mari was able to answer.

“Okay. Alec. Calm.” She held up a hand. “It’s only a first date, I doubt it’s going to be anything that fancy. And you’re both college students, so I don’t think that you’re going to be doing anything all that fancy.”

“So, what are you saying?”

“I’d say dress nicely, like you did last night. As long as you look presentable, you’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah? Alec, it’s not that difficult.”

“But I’ve never…” Alec stopped mid-sentence. “Y’know?” He gestured. “Been on a date, been in a relationship.”

“So? Literally none of that matters. It doesn’t matter how old you are, Alec. Things like this can come along at any time. For you, it just happened to be before any of your classes started in your first week at college. You can find someone who cares about you at literally any point in your life. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t met anyone like that.”

Alec wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to what Mari told him. There was a part of him that knew she was right. But at the same time, a voice in his mind was telling him the exact opposite. It was telling him there was a reason he hadn’t been on a date yet. Sure, there was a guy back home that he thought he might have been in love with, but those feelings were completely one sided and there was no way that he would have ever loved Alec back. With that in mind, that was what Alec had held with him when it came to relationships and the kind of people are out in the world. 

There was a part of him wondering if going on the date was a good idea. He thought that maybe he should cancel. Although a small voice that fought through the rest of them was that Magnus was the one who asked HIM out and Magnus was happy enough to go along with Alec and not take anything too far.

One thing Alec didn’t count on was how tired he was after the night before. He stayed in Mari’s room for a few more hours and she made him watch another one of her favourite movies. The sun had comfortably set and the street lights outside were lit. Alec returned to his room and promptly crashed down into his bed, with thoughts of Magnus swimming around his mind.


	6. New Flame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Facing his impending date, Alec is riddled with anxiety that he won't be good enough or won't be able to impress Magnus enough to make him want to stay - even through the beginning of their date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya boy obtained that sweet gainful employment!!! But also, the plot is still heading in the messy direction - despite the fact I already wrote it all.

(Sunday)

8am. Far earlier than Alec expected to have woken up. He wasn’t sure what it was, obviously exhaustion. But whether it was physical or emotional exhaustion, he wasn’t entirely sure.

Having dreamed almost exclusively of Magnus the night before, Alec was woken with thought of him. The dreams varied in quality. One included the date going impossibly well, Alec was well spoken and felt no nerves the entire time, the two of them spent hours talking, there was even a flash forward to the two of them living in the same house in a residential area of New York City. Another of the dreams, wasn’t quite as successful. It resulted in Magnus losing interest in Alec as soon as he laid eyes on him and leaving half way through the date and leaving Alec in tears, alone in a fancy restaurant. The rest of them landed somewhere in between the two extremes.

Alec showered, the hot water distracting him from his thoughts and dreams for a few minutes. He was planning on taking Mari’s advice, in that he was going to change into a nice looking, button down shirt before he left – so at least Magnus would see him looking half decent.

Throughout the day, Alec remained in his room, his mind racing and his stomach twisting with thought of Magnus. He even felt his forehead begin to sweat and his mouth go dry a few times. Even though he knew he should have, he ate nothing as he didn’t feel hungry a single time throughout the day. In an effort to take his mind off of Magnus, he sent Mari a text, asking her if he could come into her room for a little while before he had to leave.

Her room was much cleaner than when he was last in there. Alec took the exact same spot on the floor and against the wall and told Mari about some of the dreams that he could remember having.

“Alec, why would he leave you in the restaurant? Wasn’t he the one who asked YOU out? The one who invited YOU to dance with him. And basically got you into the party, I assume.”

“Yeah.” Alec said quietly. “But what if he does leave? He seems to have his life far more put together than I do and these kinds of things are probably not even remotely difficult for him.”

“Again, Alec. He invited YOU to all of these things. And he could have chosen literally anyone else, couldn’t he?” Mari said in a confident tone.

“I suppose.” Alec’s voice remained quiet.

“And if he wasn’t interested in you, he wouldn’t have asked you on a date in the first place. Surely, he would have just tried to hook-up with you on Friday and then just leave you after that. Am I right or am I right?” 

Alec remained silent while Mari spoke, taking in her words. They were registering with him and she was right. He knew that Magnus must have been something in him that he must have liked. Alec, for the life of him, couldn’t figure out what it was, considering he had never had anyone even ask him out on a date. Other than a girl when he was in elementary school, but then, he wasn’t exactly interested in anyone.

Even though Mari was right, there was still a voice in his head that was telling him that there must be something up. Alec thought to himself that he wasn’t the kind of person that would normally be taking a romantic interest in him. Although, if people did, it wasn’t something that he would normally notice, being that oblivious to it. There may have even been people flirting with Alec in the past, but he was completely unaware that it was actually happening to him.

“I guess.” Even as he spoke, Alec didn’t sound completely confident in what Mari had told him.

“Please tell me that you’re still at least going to go.” Mari was beginning to sound a little disappointed.

“Yeah.” Alec’s words seemed unintentionally sharp as he spoke. He began to chew on one of his thumbnails and put his head down a little.

“Look. Just trying and keep all the bad dreams out of your mind.” Her tone turned soft. “I know that that’s easier said than done. Just think about Friday, about all of the good things when you were with Magnus then. And just imagine that that’s how things are going to go.”

Once again, Mari was right. Alec’s mind turned to The Lens. To when he walked over to Magnus and the whole world turned magic. To when the confetti had begun to fall and the two of them were taken into the world of their own. To when there was no one else in the world but the two of them. And their kiss. When the two of them, surrounded by beauty became one for that moment.

With that, Alec was filled with a new hope. A hope that, even if the date didn’t go as well as his time in The Lens, which he was highly doubting, he at least hoped that he would make a decent enough impression so that Magnus would want to see him again.

Alec left Mari’s company, telling her that he needed to go and get ready. Back in his own room, Alec changed the black t-shirt he was wearing into a black, button down shirt and a pair of equally dark coloured jeans. Mix that with the colour of his hair then it looked like Alec was completely black and the only contrast was his pale skin. One saving grace was that at least he didn’t look tired. And black was always a safe choice when it came to what to wear. No one would be able to tell if he spilled anything on himself and with the way that he had been all day, Alec wasn’t ruling that out as something that could happen.

\---

Ten minutes to seven. Alec didn’t know where Magnus stood on arriving early or late so he wanted to get out in front of the building a little early, just in case Magnus was doing the same.

Thankfully, for a Sunday evening, the campus wasn’t busy. Stood outside of the Aquila building, no one entered or left as Alec stood just outside of the entrance. The only people who came and went were for the Bermia building next door and even then, they were few and far between.

Come seven, Alec looked at his phone to make sure that it actually was seven and that he hadn’t walked outside too early or too late, but sure enough, it was seven exactly. He was on time, he just had the painful task of waiting for Magnus to turn up. And Alec’s mind went immediately to the negative. He first thought of what if Magnus was playing him from the start and wasn’t going to turn up at all and stand him up.

Two minutes of negative thoughts clouded Alec before a figure appeared to be walking towards him. The sun was low and about to disappear, making it difficult to make out who it was. Although, from the hair, Alec presumed that it was Magnus. The butterflies he previously had when he was thinking about Magnus throughout the week had returned. Magnus actually decided to show. He wasn’t just going to stand Alec up. The negative thoughts that clouded his mind were slowly blown away as he shifted on his feet and a smile swept over his face.

From the feeling in his cheeks, Alec could feel the smile probably made him look far too eager, or even a little crazy or manic.

Underneath a street light, Magnus came into full view for Alec, finally. And Alec walked down to meet him. Magnus looked better than Alec even remembered. He remembered Magnus looking like he was glittering under the light in The Lens, but now, under the street light and in the final remnants of daylight, Alec could see that he wasn’t wrong. Magnus’ face looked as though it was glittering. And other than a little black eyeliner, Magnus was wearing no cosmetics. To Alec, he looked perfect. Magnus was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and an extravagantly patterned silk shirt. Alec was blown away by how amazing Magnus looked. He wondered to himself why Magnus had even put in all that effort just for him, but he didn’t particularly want to question it now that he was here and stood before him.

“Alec. It’s good to see you.” Magnus started, his voice smooth in Alec’s ears. It was the first thing that Alec had heard Magnus say, sober, since he first met him and it caused the butterflies to stir at an alarming rate.

“You too.” Was all Alec managed, almost choking on the words. “I guess we’ll go now?” Alec cringed internally at how awkward he thought he was coming off.

“Of course. I parked a little further down, so we don’t have to wait to get into the city. I assume that’s okay?”

“Yeah, of course.” Alec couldn’t tell whether his cheeks were red or not, but he was certainly feeling a lot hotter than he was before. The two of them began to walk down campus together, towards the car park Alec was initially dropped off in.

“You know, Alec. I’m glad you agreed to go out with me. I was almost expecting you to say no.”

“You- you were?” Alec placed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Surprised by me? Aren’t you really popular?”

“I suppose I am.” Magnus held his hands together as he looked to Alec. He was a little shorter than Alec was. But far more confident. “I think it was that I just managed to make friends with the right people in my first year. Like Travis, I suppose, you I think you’ve met. Travis and all his friends are all on the football team and I somehow got them to like me.”

Hearing that, Alec wondered why it was him, of all people that Magnus was interested in. He wasn’t complaining, mind you, but he was just wondering why him. He wasn’t exactly popular yet. Sure, classes hadn’t technically started yet, so he thought he was doing alright at least being friends with Mari. But Alec thought that surely Magnus would be more interested in someone who has a higher standing when it came to popularity.

“And you’re interested in me?” Alec asked.

“I am. Are you surprised by that?” Magnus said with a light tone.

“I- I gue- A little.”

“Why? There’s nothing wrong with you. And you seemed nice from the short time I’ve known you.” Alec definitely knew that his cheeks turned red after hearing that. After a few seconds of his mind spinning, he managed to gather his thoughts together.

“So, where are we going?” He was trying to sound as put together as possible, but he still managed to sound incredibly nervous.

“I know a place in the city. One of those kinds of places where you don’t have to get all dressed up to enjoy. I would imagine that the two of us would be fine.” Alec was immediately relieved hearing that, knowing that he wasn’t being taken to some ultra, high class place where he would need to be dressed in full black tie to even be allowed inside. “I want it to be a surprise for you.” Magnus continued. “I went there a few times last and I think that you’ll like it.”

“I honestly don’t even know anywhere to eat in the city so it makes no real difference to me. I couldn’t really tell you what’s good and what’s not.” Alec surprised himself in that he managed to form a sentence as long as that in front of Magnus. He was expecting that he would barely manage to form any kind of legible sentence over three words the entire evening.

“That’s alright. You’re with me, Alec. Hopefully you’ll like where we’re going.” The two of them walked into the parking lot, the street lights have been switched on and were emitting a low humming sound that resonated throughout the area.

The same red car that Alec had seen Magnus in before was parked, alone in the parking lot. It seemed like a different world than it had been last, with a whole two cars in the lot compared to when everyone was moving their children in. A once bustling area was now completely uninhabited. Alec was almost expecting a portal would appear in the ground, out of nowhere, to take them to another world. A magic world. Whether he was going to be swallowed by the ground, Alec had already experience magic with Magnus once and he was sure that it was going to happen again. At what point, he didn’t know.

Wind blew gently passed Alec’s cheek as the two of them reached the car. Magnus turned to Alec, opening the door as he stepped to the side, urging Alec into the seat. Alec felt himself flush as he sat down and awkwardly thanked Magnus, trying a little too hard to make sure he made it into the seat and to not miss. It would have been a difficult task to do, but Alec wasn’t taking any chances and didn’t want to ruin the date in any way.

He almost couldn’t believe his eyes, but as he watched Magnus walked around the front of the car to the other side, Alec could have sworn he saw a trail or an aura behind Magnus. When he was expecting magic, he didn’t expect to be seeing something like that. Although he wasn’t sure whether it was magic or whether it was his eyes playing tricks on him.

“Ready?” Magnus asked. His voice sounded like honey. Smooth and sweet as it slipped into Alec’s mind. He nodded in response and Magnus started the engine.

\---

Stars coated the night sky as Magnus drove the two of them out of the parking lot. The roof of the car was still down and the night air caressed Alec as the car moved.

Alec was thankful that Magnus was driving far more carefully than when he had seen the car previously. He thought to himself that Magnus may not have been driving at that point, but there was a part of him that was thinking that Magnus shared that same mentality when it came to driving. But it was completely different. Alec felt at ease. There had been times when Alec had been in a car, with someone driving that he didn’t know particularly well and he had been uncertain with how that person would drive. Alec wasn’t thinking about that with Magnus, however, he was simply enjoying the drive as Magnus turned out of the parking lot and away from campus.

Streetlights lined both sides of the street that the two of them were about to turn onto. As Alec looked up at them, a few of them had moths fluttering around underneath, vying for the light.

Magnus turned the car to the left, Alec turned to look at Magnus as they passed under the streetlights while he was focused on the road. Magnus’ skin looked to be glowing as they passed under each light, with flashes of colour looking to come from his cheek intermittently.

While it wasn’t necessarily busy as they got further away from campus, the two of them still seemed to stop at every set of stop lights. Alec held his hands between his legs while desperately trying to think of something to say to Magnus. In his mind, he was the most boring person on the planet, as he currently couldn’t think of a single interesting thing that had happened to him throughout his life. Whereas, just from the way he dressed, he assumed that Magnus had most likely travelled the world or had an insurmountable number of interesting things to talk about.

“Everything alright?” Magnus said as they stopped at another red light. “You’ve not really said anything since we got in the car.”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Alec’s stomach twisted in his nerves. He was still stuck in disbelief that Magnus had even asked him on a date. “I’m just a little…” He sighed, in hopes that that might have flushed out some of the nerves. “Nervous.” Alec considered looking over to Magnus, to see if he was looking over at him, but the nerves got the better of him and he remained with his head forward. He felt a bead of sweat begin to form.

“Well there’s no need to be, I don’t bite. I know a few people that do, but I don’t. We could talk about that, if it helps. What is it that’s making you nervous?”

Alec stayed silent for another moment, plucking the courage from his gut to tell Magnus that it was him that was making him nervous.

“It’s… all of this?” Alec gestured towards the dashboard of the car in a sweeping motion. “I wasn’t expecting… I don’t know. I didn’t know what I was expecting and I think I started thinking about it too much and then I-“

“Okay, calm down, Alec.” Magnus begun smiling. “Like I said. There’s no need to be nervous. You shouldn’t have to try and make any effort to impress me. You should just be yourself.”

“Yeah?”

“Well. I liked what I had already seen of you, already. So much so that I spoke a lot about you to Clary. I think you know her. And that’s what made me want to ask you out in the first place. Perhaps what I did in The Lens was a little much, but you didn’t seem to want to stop so I didn’t want to stop it either. Hopefully I did nothing out of line?”

“No, you- no. Everything is fine- was fine. Not just fine. I mean-“

“Got it.” Magnus laughed to himself since Alec was practically babbling and falling over his words. Had the two of them been walking, Alec would most likely have managed to physically fall over. “Still, you have nothing to be scared of with me.” Magnus pressed a finger lightly against Alec’s chest as the light turned green and they set off again.

\---

Flickering lights illuminated the interior of the parking lot. With it being a Sunday night, the lot was relatively busy with people in a similar position to Alec and Magnus, going for food before they return to normal life come Monday morning.

Stepping out of the lot itself led the two into a new street that was positively glowing. With a few hours before the bars and clubs opened, the two of them had a few hours of serenity in the city before people began to pour in. Alec could see the neon lights from a few of the bars down the street, whether it be under the dying sunlight – the neon seemed calmer and more serene than it had previously been.

Alec walked behind Magnus down the street, he had told the, presumably older, guy that he was just going to follow him, assuming that he knew the city better. Alec wasn’t wrong in making this assumption. Magnus led him down a couple main streets and then down a single side street, that was illuminated by an alluring purple glow. There was something about it that drew Alec into in, almost as if it was from another world.

“Here we are.” Magnus said, his voice as smooth as the light.

Magnus led Alec under the light, that seemed to darken as he walked under it, through a doorway and into what looked to be a coatroom. Alec took a moment to wonder as to whether where he had been brought to was actually a restaurant. If it was, it would have had to have been some kind of pop-up place, or some mafia place. Magnus opened to the door and led Alec inside. What he saw inside, however, took his breath away.

The door opened up onto a grand balcony. As Alec walked through and up to the banister, he stared down to the floor below to see a bustling restaurant. It wasn’t a place draped in opulence and the people seated at tables certainly weren’t dressed as though they would be snobs, not all of them at least. But it still looked like a classy place – certainly not the place that Alec was expecting. Tables and chairs were a plush red and gold combination and pillars that lined the room and that rose to the ceiling.

From where the two of them stood, there was no way to move any further to the left as the balcony ended practically where they stood. Down to the right however, there were three steps that led into what looked to be a more private restaurant area than the one downstairs. Of the five tables for two, the two that were taken were taken by older couples. Even the people downstairs, minus one couple with a baby, all looked to be older than Alec and Magnus, leaving Alec to wonder how Magnus knew about the place.

“Magnus, this place is… H-how do you know about this place? It seems…?”

“Not much really. I just made friends with a woman, Dorothea, last year and she just happens to own this place.” Magnus shrugged in a nonchalant manner. “She said that I’m welcome here anytime. As long as I don’t come here all the time, of course.” He raised a hand, gesturing for Alec to move towards the steps. He did, with Magnus close behind.

“How do you casually do something that gets you into… is this a VIP area or something?” Alec asked as they walked down the steps into the exclusive area. 

Directly opposite the steps was a door that, presumably, led downstairs. It looked a little more dishevelled than the rest of the area. The chairs and tables look even cleaner and more opulent than they did downstairs with a bar on the far side of the room to boot. The tables for two all sat in a line, with the people sat at them on the far ends of them, then the other two tables for larger parties stood against the walls that had portraits of famous guests that had visited.

There was one, finely dressed, waiter and one person working the bar for the entire area. And considering there were only seven tables, no one else would really be required. As he noticed this, Alec wondered if there was a different chef or a separate kitchen for the area as well. A job that, he thought, probably was one that wasn’t too demanding considering they could never particularly be that busy at one time, even if all of the tables were filled.

The waiter, after leaving a steaming plate of food on one of the tables promptly straightened his black apron and walked over to Alec and Magnus.

“Good evening, sirs.” He looked over to Magnus. “It’s good to see you Mr. Bane, Dorothea will be most pleased to know you’ve finally come.”

“Thank you. Truth be told, I never wanted to come here on my own. And now I finally have a reason to.” Magnus gestured to Alec. Causing red to flush over Alec’s face.

“And who is your guest?” The waiter’s voice sounded smooth.

“Oh- uhh. Alec- Alec Lightwood.” Alec looked to Magnus, making sure what he had said was the right thing he should have and hoping that he didn’t sound too formal, or like he was poking fun at the waiter. Magnus returned the look with a smooth smile on his face, as if he was stifling a laugh.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Lightwood. Can I show the two of you to a table?”

“That would we wonderful, thank you.” Magnus said.

The waiter led the two of them to the central table for two. Even through his shoes, Alec could feel how soft the floor was underfoot. It crossed his mind how much money must have been spent putting together the place. Sure, there were fancier places that probably cost more, but they weren’t exactly places he was going to be able to get into. Although, where he was now wasn’t the kind of place he ever imagined that he would end up.

There weren’t any menus around the place, only a few boards around the room with the food available for the day. There were smaller signs mentioning that the menu changed every day. Two starters, two main courses and two desserts all of which Alec didn’t know how to pronounce. He was hoping that Magnus would be able order for him, or at least tell him what everything was. There were a few of the words that he could make out from the board so that he could get a vague idea of what some of the things were.

Moments later, the waiter reappeared and Magnus promptly ordered for the both of them. As he left Magnus turned back to Alec.

“Alec… Let’s get to know each other, a little. Shall we?”


	7. Starlight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Magnus' first date concludes, but just how well did it go for the two of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya boy's had a tough few days, mentally. So I hope the y'all enjoy this.

(Sunday evening)

Richness coated the room. The décor may not have shown it, but the cliental sat at the tables to the left and right of Alec certainly made it seem so.

“You’re from New York, and the big city itself no less?” Magnus sat back a little in his chair. “I happen to come from there myself.”

“No way?” Alec lit up a little inside. He overtly interested in Magnus, but there were parts of him that, while he was spending time with him before, thought they would have nothing in common and that his feelings would be short lived. But hearing that Magnus came from the same place that he did, it gave him hope that they might, at least, have something in common – something to keep them going. “Where about?”

“Well, when I was younger, my family and I lived in Syosset. It’s about thirty miles east of the big city. Then as I got a little older, my father got an amazing job in the city, so we moved, simple as that.” The way he spoke, Alec could have sworn he had a flourish of some sort to his voice.

“I’ve never really been there, I’ve really only been in the city itself, at least until I moved here.” Alec’s voice began to get quieter as he spoke. “I’ve… not really had an interesting life.” Alec questioned why he said that immediately. Surely the point of the date was to try and impress Magnus. To try and get him to want to see him again and the depressing talk he had been coming out with wasn’t the way he wanted to go.

“But you’re young, Alec.” Magnus smiled. To Alec, it looked as though the sun was shining around Magnus as he spoke. And as he listened to Magnus’ voice, he felt the warmth of the sun from him. “I wouldn’t expect anyone our age to have had a particularly interesting life. Unless they had some of that white privilege.”

Alec sat silently for a moment. There couldn’t have been more than a few years between Magnus and himself, yet Magnus seemed so much more worldly than he did. Even if Magnus hadn’t been on any grand adventures, he was sure to be far more knowledgeable than Alec was. He didn’t seem to be the athletic type, from his body at least, so perhaps Alec had that on him and if it came to it, Alec could pull some less than interesting story out about high school.

“You’re right.” Alec said. His voice, holding a smooth inflection at the end, as if his mind had just been blown. “And I guess that’s one of the main things that you do in college, right? You get to do a bunch of things you wouldn’t at home?”

“Exactly. Like going out to a club and kissing a guy you barely know?” Alec felt his face redden as a smile drew across his face and he looked downwards for but a moment.

“Yeah, that was uhh, definitely not like anything I would do at home.”

“I have to admit, you took me by surprise when you did it. Although I’m not about to complain about it.” The smoothness in Magnus’ voice reappeared.

“I surprised myself that night. I’m not normally one for being that… open, I guess?” Honesty was the way to go, Alec knew that much. If Magnus wouldn’t like Alec if he was completely honest, then he knew he wouldn’t be worth it, not matter what he felt.

“Open?”

“It’s just that, before I came here I was never really – I didn’t feel like I could be… honest to people.” Alec’s voice oozed shame and his tone turned flat. “I didn’t think that anyone would stick around, or support me if they knew I was…”

Previously repressed thoughts suddenly came rushing back into Alec’s mind. Things that had happened to him throughout high school. When his teammates had all been talking about their girlfriends and other women in the locker room and he could only fake as best he could, he knew he wasn’t one of them, but could never risk them finding out the truth. When he was worried about his teammates would find out if he hung out with girls too often, although the majority of them were your standard meatheads. They would all just assume that they all wanted him, which couldn’t have been further from the truth when they felt like he was one of the few boys as school they could actually be friends with.

“That doesn’t matter, Alec.” Magnus’ words cut through Alec’s mind. “If someone wouldn’t stick around for the real you or accept who you really are… then they’re not worth having around.” Magnus’ voice slammed down on the thoughts Alec was having and cast them aside to make way for Magnus. “There are people who will accept you, Alec. The real you. And they’re the ones that are truly worth keeping around. They are your true friends. Your family.”

Considering Mari was the first-person Alec had told, in person, that he was gay and that had happened within the last month, he still felt very new when it came to things like Magnus was telling him. He had no one around like Mari, like Magnus when he was at home and he could never truly be himself. Coming to college had made him so much happier, and while he wasn’t expecting to have the talk he was having, he was truly only hoping that things would get a little easier for him. And from hearing was Magnus had to say on that matter alone. He could tell that things would be on the up for him. 

Like the glittering of starlight, everything was beautiful and finally coming together for him. Only he had no idea.

The rest of their time in the restaurant felt like no more than a blur to Alec, Magnus’ words touched him in a way that he never would have expected. To top things off everything that he told Magnus seemed to go down perfectly. Alec was almost certain that the date couldn’t go any better.

\----

After leaving the restaurant, Magnus led Alec out of the restaurant, through the main hub of the city and to the outskirts, down to a river that flowed through parts of the city itself. The last breaths of summer had left the city and the embrace of fall had taken control. As Alec and Magnus walked, Alec could see streams of his breath in the air.  
“It didn’t seem right just immediately taking you back after the restaurant.” Magnus started. “And for some reason, not many people come down here.”

The two were stood on what looked like a fishing platform over the river with a bench that the two had taken. Before them, the river rolled gentle passed creating the faintest trickling sound of the water. And they section they were sat, the water was shockingly clear for a city. So much so, that it was possible to see to the river bed itself. Nothing overly spectacular, but it looked as though people had previously thrown coins in as the water sparkled occasionally as the flow passed over. With no bridges nearby, either, Alec and Magnus were sat almost in silence.

“I’m surprised it is so quiet.” Alec said looking around, the closest road was a one-way street that saw very little traffic during the day. “Somewhere like this in a city… it has to be a rarity.”

“It’s one of my favourite places and it’s pretty special to me. I used to come here whenever things got particularly rough for me last year.” Magnus and Alec were both looking out into the river. “I’m hoping that that doesn’t repeat this year. I’d like to keep myself a little more together.” He sighed. “And hopefully better things will happen, they’re already on the up.”

“Things were bad for you? Aren’t you the social butterfly of the college?” Alec looked over at Magnus. A streetlight was shining down a little way away from the two of them, but Alec could have sworn that it was making Magnus’ cheeks glitter and shine.

“True.” Magnus chuckled. “But if you’re the social butterfly, like you say. There’s a lot of pressure and sometimes, without getting in a too much detail, it got a little bit too much for me.” Magnus turned to Alec. “Me. Of all people.”

“See, all you have to do is get like three friends like I did and then you’ll never have that problem.”

Under the moonlight, the two of them laughed. If Alec had any doubts about how they date had been going, they were gone. He was amazed with himself more than anything. He was more open than Magnus than he had been with anyone else in his life. This man he had known for a limited amount of time and had seen approximately three times was destroying walls that Alec didn’t even know he had erected.

They continued to talk on the platform, about almost every topic under the sun. Movies, TV shows, music, what type of animals they preferred over others. The conversation came so easily to Alec, he didn’t even think about what to say, the words came out of his mouth in perfect form and the conversation between the two of them felt like magic. The sounds of their voices floated around each other’s heads and nothing had ever sounded better.

\---

“You know, Alec. I think I should be getting you home soon.” Magnus began. “Before you say anything, don’t worry, it’s nothing bad. I just don’t think that we should sit here, in the city all night, especially considering it’s almost midnight.”

Magnus flashed his watch face to Alec, he was right. The hands were almost perfectly upright. The two of them had been sat on the platform over the river and talking for hours. So much so that Alec hadn’t even noticed that the moon was at its peak in the sky in shining directly down on the two of them. Everything had been perfect, he didn’t even notice that the sun had completely disappeared from the sky.

Although he didn’t particularly want to leave, Alec didn’t object to what Magnus said. He offered a simple ‘you’re right’, and the two headed back to Magnus’ car. The ride back through the city was quiet, Magnus opted for an alternate route to the one they took into town, wanting to avoid all of the bars and clubs.

Streetlight after streetlight, the two of them edged ever closer back to the campus and to the Aquila building. It was bittersweet as Alec hadn’t realised that his body had already decided that he was done for the night and ready to go home. He felt tired and completely worn out, both physically and emotionally. He hadn’t expected to pour out as many emotions as he did, but he didn’t regret a single one. Even through his tiredness, he still manged to make a little conversation with Magnus, although nothing substantial.

They pulled back onto campus. And back into the parking lot that they left from. The campus was completely dead. Those who had gone into the city for the night were long gone and there were no other people around. Back at the entrance of the Aquila, the two stopped to look at one another.

“Thank you, Alec. For agreeing to come out with me.” Magnus began. 

After the words had previously come so easily to Alec, that ability had seemingly left him. He didn’t have a single clue about what to do at the end of the date. He didn’t know the protocol of how to leave Magnus. The only thing he was certain of was that he knew he wasn’t ready to bring Magnus inside. He didn’t have a big bed either, it was just enough to fit him, he didn’t know what the logistics of ‘that’ would even be.

“I- I, uhh.” Alec took a second a took a deep, silent, breath. “Thank you?” Was all Alec managed.

“I didn’t think that you would say yes to me asking you. I’m just glad you did. And I don’t think that it could have gone much better for me.”

That was it. That was what Alec was hoping he would here. He succeeded. He actually made a good impression on Magnus. Magnus Bane of all people at the college.

“I- I did, too…” He was trying his best. The words ‘can I see you again?’ were fighting their way valiantly through Alec’s body, trying to make their way out of his mouth. But there was something, something that he wasn’t sure about. What if Magnus was lying to him? Even after their perfect date, what if it wasn’t enough. His stomach twisted as he rocked a little on his feet and looked directly into Magnus’ eyes.

“Would you… would you see me again, Alec?” Magnus asked.

Fireworks. Alec knew it was cliché, but he felt fireworks in his stomach. He couldn’t get the words out but Magnus could. Although no more words would leave Alec’s mouth and he realised this. All he could do was offer a weak nod.

“Wonderful. I’ll be in contact.” Magnus turned around, ready to walk away until something left Alec’s lips.

“Magnus.”

Magnus turned around at the sound of his voice and looked back at Alec. The two stood, face to face for a moment that extended longer than the two of them could have possible thought. But it was finally broken.

Alec stepped forward, pressing his lips against Magnus’ and placing and arm around his back. The fireworks returned. No longer in his stomach, though. The fireworks were shooting out over his head, raining down sparks on the two of them and enveloping the two of them in everything that Alec ever wanted. Every cliché movie he had ever seen was suddenly coming true. The moment was perfect, he felt like the two of them were becoming one and everything was falling into place. And then, they separated.

“Alexander.” Magnus could do nothing but look at Alec, his mouth a little agape in a smile.


	8. Here Comes The Rapture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec fills a friend in on his date and tells Magnus about the man who confronted him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're getting into what the main part of the plot I ended up going with is.

(Monday)

Alec wasn’t anticipating talking to anyone for the rest of the night, but Mari had been waiting up for Alec to return. She was waiting for Alec to return. As she waited for Alec to return, she looked as though she was prepared to camp out for him. She had her laptop out and was surrounded by snacks. Alec found out that she had been sat watching movies with Clary and Maia for a few hours and the two of them had only recently left.

The two of them went into Alec’s room and he regaled her with what seemed like tales of the date he had just been on.

“Seriously? That’s amazing, Alec.”

“Well, here comes the rapture.”

“What do you mean?”

“Me, Mari. Me of all people, managed to make such a good impression on Magnus that he wants to see ME again.”

“Clearly you did something right.”

“I’m not sure what I did, really. I was speaking, and it was so easy with him. I’m used to just avoiding the majority of people and then making minimal conversation, so the fact that we stayed out for so long is amazing to me.” Alec forced himself to stop talking. He could tell that if he hadn’t stopped himself he could have talked about Magnus for hours.

“You did something right, clearly. AND he said he wanted to see you again. So, who knows, maybe you’ll end up really high up on the social hierarchy of this college. In your first year, as well.”

“If I do it’s not gonna be by choice, Mari. And something tells me that I’m not exactly cut out to be that popular.” He shrugged.

“There’s always the option to use those powers for good if you do get them, Alec.”

\---

Monday came around, or really, re-appeared for Alec as he went into college for an actual class for the first time. During the time that he was in college he was approached by a man, not too dissimilar in his body from Travis. He introduced himself as Quinn and the person that was actually being moved in to the Aquila building when Alec first met Travis. The two of them sat together the entire lecture and following seminar immediately after, offering a major wave of relief for Alec considering he didn’t know whether he would even be able to make friends with anyone in his classes.

Towards the end of the classes Quinn told Alec that they should sit together in their other classes. Alec thought to himself that even if Quinn was the only person he would make friends with in his classes, it was good enough for him, because it was better than having no one. Following that train of thought, Alec realised that that did make it sound like he was taking Quinn for granted, even though he knew that he wasn’t. He knew that being on such good terms with Magnus could have ended up giving him some perks around campus, but he wasn’t about to take anyone’s friendship for granted. He would take all he could get.

Walking around campus, Alec noticed that posters had been places around some of the buildings and on boards on the inside. Each one said the exact same thing that filled Alec with the feeling of dread.

“Winter Ball: December 13th: Anteres Auditorium”

It was all an advertisement for a ball they were having at the college. Something that Alec thought he had managed to leave behind in high school after going to his senior prom with one of his friend, Jessica. But now, the thought of having another ball coming up, even if it was months away, wasn’t something that made Alec happy.

One thing did stop him, however. He was at college. A place far larger than a high school. Where a high school was one single community, a college was far from that. College was a collection of different communities. There was nothing tying one specific person to that place if they didn’t want it. If they wanted, a person could fly completely under the radar if they chose. That was Alec’s preferred method of making his way through college. The dread he initially felt for having to go to the ball quickly left his body. There was nothing forcing him to go and he could fly as far under the radar as he wanted. Although, one thing entered his mind: If he was going to keep dating Magnus, it was likely that he wasn’t going to be under that radar for much longer. People were likely to find out who he was.

Alec continued towards the Aquila and his mind kept rolling over to Magnus. It had only been one date, which normally wouldn’t have been much, but it felt like so much more to Alec. It felt… magical. From being in high school and having to lie his way through his life, finally being able to be himself was everything that Alec ever wanted.

\---

Approaching the Aquila building, Alec could see Mari was stood outside the entrance, talking to a man much taller than her. His arms were covered in tattoos. Alec wasn’t sure what it was, but there was something about him that made him look a lot older than her. On top of everything, he definitely didn’t look like he went to college alongside anyone and he didn’t look like he was happy with Mari.

“Can I help you?” Alec asked the man.

“None of your business.” He said, not looking away from Mari who was trying to back away from the man and get into the building. “This is between me and the girl.”

“Well, ‘the girl’ is my friend. So, it kind of is my business, especially if she isn’t okay.” Alec’s tone became darker causing the man to turn around from Mari to look at Alec. The man was bald and had two circular scars on the left side of his neck, one inside of the other. The man leaned in closer to Alec and lowered his voice.

“I don’t give a shit. Whether you think it’s your business or not,” his face was red and was speaking through his teeth, “none of this involved you. So, take your scrawny ass and get out of here.”

A pit formed in Alec’s stomach. He didn’t know this man. He didn’t know what he wanted or what he was doing with Mari, but he knew that it wouldn’t be right leaving his friend with someone potential dangerous or as agitated as he obviously was.

“Alec don’t-“ Mari started. Although, it was clear to her that Alec wasn’t going to leave her.

“What are you gonna do? Huh?” The man said, grabbing Alec’s shirt. “Gonna play the fucking hero?”

“What are you going to do?” Alec moved his eyes to the camera in the entrance of the Aquila. The man noticed the movement and turned around. Noticing the camera, he practically slammed Alec onto the ground.

“Shit…” The man said under his breath. “If I see you again, I’ll fucking kill you.” His face was screaming red before he stormed away from the building.

Alec pulled himself back onto his feet, brushing the dust off his jacket when Mari ran down to his side.

“Alec, are you okay?” Her face looked to have dropped and tears had formed in her eyes. “This is my fault, I’m so sorry.” She brushed at Alec’s sleeves and gathered a few of the things that he had dropped onto the floor and handed them back to him.

“I’m fine.” He groaned. “Who was that?

“I don’t know his name. But I first saw him when we went out – when you met Magnus. Just before we all got in the cab and went home, he came up to Clary, Maia and myself and   
I think he started hitting on Clary. It was creepy enough when he did that because he’s old enough to be our dads. But he just appeared when I was trying to go back into the building, then he wouldn’t let me go back inside until I told him where Clary lived.”

“Was he some kind of stalker?”

“I don’t know. Maybe? I’ll tell someone about it, security or someone when I go out later – Clary’s coming by later.”

“As long as you’re not going to be on your own.”

“I won’t, don’t worry. But after he did that, I’m worried that he might come back for you.”

“I’m not going to actively try and seek him out, so don’t worry about that. And since all that was on camera, I’m sure that someone is going to see it and then find out who he is. I hope they would, at least.”

“Like I said, when I’m with Clary later I’ll go tell security, alright? Then I’ll let you know when I’ve done it.”

“Okay, thanks.” 

The two of them headed back upstairs together and went into their respective rooms. Alec had reading that he needed to finish for classes he had the following day so they didn’t go into each other’s rooms. Later, just as she said she would, Mari texted Alec telling him that she had stopped by the security office to inform them about what had happened earlier and that it was on the camera at the entrance of their building. She went on to tell him that the person on the shift before him had seen it happening and informed a higher up and that someone from the police would likely be in contact with the two of them later.

Police. He had been to a whole one day of classes and the police would be coming to speak to Alec. And not for anything exciting.

\---

Tuesday came around and Alec found himself sat with Quinn in his class once again. Then Alec found himself back in his room, alone. The only company he found was the buzz of his phone, shortly after he made it back home. It was Magnus.

M: ‘Hello, Alec. I was wondering if you’d like to go to lunch tomorrow?’

A: ‘I’d love to. Let me know when specifically?’

M: ‘I’m in classes until 1, so, meet you on the Anteres Quad after then?’

A: ‘Sounds good. I finish at 12:30 so I’ll probably wait for you’

M: ‘Wonderful. I’ll see you tomorrow’

That was the point Alec’s mind wiped, completely. He wanted desperately to continue the conversation like he so easily managed on their date, but there was nothing that was coming to his mind. He wondered whether he would come off too clingy if he tried to casually continue the conversation, although, he knew that there was very little that was casual about his texting. Alec was usually the one just to write the bare minimum, in full and proper grammar. He knew that there was no way that he would be able to play off the casual coolness that he was vying for that Magnus managed so easily.

He only had one option, to simply not text back. The only thing that came into his mind was: ‘whatever you send back will only come off as lame or sad’. Ultimately siding with his better judgment, for once when it came to Magnus, he placed his phone down and got on with the work he was originally meant to be doing.

\---

The next day rolled around, uneventfully, and Alec found himself on a bench watching a group of students playing some sort of game. He stopped to wonder whether they all knew each other and how old they were. Some of them looked as though they were barely out of high school, some of them looked as though they should still have even been in there.

Timetable alignments made it so Alec had a half an hour to wait by himself until Magnus was due to show up. A part, inside of him crawled and had a feeling of unease as he sat alone. Occasionally he thought that one of the people in the group a little way away from him or someone passing by would look at him. And he could swear that they would be thinking about how strange he was for being there alone. Once or twice he even contemplating leaving and waiting somewhere else, out of the way, but somewhere he could see the quad for when Magnus appeared.

Signs of fall approaching were all around him, as the tree he sat under was slowly losing life, throwing a leaf down around him every few minutes. It wouldn’t be overly long until the days were short and the quad looked lifeless and fewer people would show up. And if they were lucky a blanket of snow would join them. Given the geography of the college, it was still fairly northern so snow was pretty likely.

Alec was snapped back into the world, out of his mind, by Magnus’ voice off to his right. As Alec stood to greet him, it suddenly hit him that he didn’t actually know what the proper way would be to greet him. Was a hug too much? Alec failed to make a proper decision so he settled on a casual wave. Even then, Alec wondered whether it looked like too much.

As he watched Magnus walk towards him, he looked more confident than Alec ever did when he walked. Alec also thought that he looked almost normal, clothing-wise. A distinct lack of flashy clothes came a surprise to Alec. Where he was used to seeing Magnus in the kinds of clothes you would only see on a runway show, Magnus had opted for a simple white button-down shirt and black jeans. A look not too dissimilar from Alec’s, minus the white colour that would draw attention to him. Even Magnus’ hair, while tall, was missing the flair that Alec had seen previously. Magnus put it down to ‘not wanting to give everyone the most’. He would look amazing, but only when he wanted. Alec found that he didn’t mind either way, he was still just amazed Magnus wanted to see him.

Magnus told Alec that ‘he knew a place’, which was something Alec could being a recurring theme between the two of them. Not that he was about to complain, since it took the strain of decision making away from him and gave it to Magnus. Plus, Magnus knew the area better than he did, so he wouldn’t have been able to make a decision if he wanted to.

Rolling it over in his mind, Alec wondered whether he should just come straight out with it and ask Magnus whether he knew who that man was that was harassing Mari and Clary. He assumed that he probably would know since Clary would have likely relayed the information anyway, but he decided it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

“I don’t know much,” Magnus started, “his name is Val, I believe.”

“Val?” Alec said, in disbelief and almost laughing.

“I know, I think it sounds ridiculous, as well. But he has a habit of causing problems for all kinds of people.” He sighed. “I don’t know whether he is any more than a common thug or not. Although, judging from some of the markings on his body, I wouldn’t really want to take the risk.”

“Have you run into him before?” Alec asked, his voice wary, making the visible effort to try not to pry into anything too personal.

“A few times, he usually goes after women – redheads, like Clary, for some reason. But only in the city, so that fact he was on campus was odd.” Magnus sighed. “Luckily for me, whenever I’ve seen him, I’ve been with more than one person. I assume that he knows not to pick fights he knows he wouldn’t be able to win, or at least, not against larger groups.”

“I ran into him once at that was more than enough. He threatened me before he left Mari and I alone.”

“I heard, Clary told me a few hours ago. I hope the both of you are okay? Clary told me he threatened your life?”

“Yeah. But he left when he saw that what he was doing was on the camera outside my building.”

“That’s good, at least.” Magnus begun to pick at the skin around his fingernails. “That means that he should at least lay low for a little while. Again, Clary told me that she and Mari went to campus security. I would hope that they would take some kind of action.”

“I hope.” Alec’s voice went quiet. His replayed being held inches away from Val’s screaming face in his mind. “Mari did tell me that the police would be coming to talk to us as some point about it.”

“Who knows how long that’ll be.” Magnus sounded decidedly unimpressed. “Now, please don’t think of this as too forward, but if either Mari or yourself should feel unsafe at the Aquila, the both of you are welcome to stay with me for a few days. Travis would let you stay, I’m sure, I would have to ask him first, though. But I’m sure he would welcome you.”

“Thank you, Magnus.” Alec smiled. His stomach flipped as Magnus made him the offer. “I’ll talk to Mari about it later, so she knows.”

“Good. Know that the offer always stands. Oh, and speaking of Travis. He wanted me to ask you if you were going to try out for any of the sports teams? He’s involved in most of them in one way or another and he seems intent on getting you on at least one of them.” Magnus looked at Alec.

“I’m not sure. I haven’t looked into it all that much.” That was a blatant lie, although Magnus didn’t know that. And Alec didn’t know why he lied. He had looked over most of the sports that the college offered, but the truth was that ninety-nine percent of them didn’t actually interest him. It was likely that Travis wanted him to join the football team, or something along those brutal lines, which was just the kind of thing that Alec wanted to avoid. The only one that had really caught his eye was archery. Something Alec had only tried once or twice, but was eager to try again, he had been pretty good when he did try. He thought that it was something he actually stood a half decent chance at.

“Well the try-outs for most of the teams are over this weekend. There’s a timetable for them somewhere online. I figured I should tell you so Travis can’t yell at me for not doing it.” It was the small things like that that made Alec smile when he was with Magnus. Or really, most things that Magnus did made Alec smile.

It wouldn’t have mattered whether Magnus had told Alec or not about the try-outs since he would have gone to the archery ones regardless. And it didn’t matter about the timetable either. He already knew they were happening for archery on Saturday at two-thirty, in the sports hall. Inside, presumably to keep the people who had the dangerous weapons away from everyone else who trying out for sports where they needed limbs that hadn’t been shot by arrows.

\---

Through everything that had been happening, Alec’s first week of college wasn’t even over and he had already been on a date with one of the most notable people at the college, made a few friends, had his life threatened by someone dangerous and was trying out for one of the sports team.

He wasn’t entirely sure how it had all been real, especially since things were going so well for him. Even though nothing had particularly gone sour for him in the past, he wasn’t really doing things that he had picked out for himself. He mostly went for the things that his ‘friends’ at the time were doing for the sheer fact that he didn’t want to be completely alone through high school which, if he had done what he was currently doing at college, that would have been a major possibility for him.

There was one thing that played over in his mind during lunch with Magnus and for the rest of the day. Val. Not in the same way that Magnus played in his mind. In a way that inspired fear. Sure, he had confidently stood up to the thug for Mari. But, ultimately, what was the cost of that? The man had threatened his life. And from the way he looked, it seemed as though he was serious. Alec had no way of knowing whether Val would follow through on his threats, although Alec wasn’t eager to find out. He didn’t even know where about Val would normally be found, something he regretted not asking about when he was with Magnus.

Nothing he could do now. All he could do was wait for the weekend, hopefully he could make the archery team.


	9. You Get Yours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of sports try-outs arrive and we see Alec trying out for the archery team wherein he meets the dark and broody Sebastian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got a good chunk of the chapters for the next fic I've got in my mind planned out. But I haven't started writing it and due to uni, I'm not entirely sure that it's going to be a top priority of my things to do. But it's definitely in the works.

(Saturday)

The weekend rolled around. The week, uneventful other than Alec and Magnus texting one another back and forth throughout the days. Magnus told Alec that he would come and watch him try-out for the archery team and being that Magnus seemed to have so much push around the college, it would have been unlikely that he would be told no. They went on to agree to go out into the city afterwards with Mari, Clary and Maia, at least, after everyone’s try-outs. Mari had no plans to try-out for anything, ‘not really being into sports’, but she was going to watch Clary and Maia. Then they would all meet up afterwards.

One thing that swam around Alec’s mind, as she showered, was that the authorities hadn’t turned up to speak to either Mari or himself, following the days that Mari told campus security about Val, who had previously threatened Alec. He wasn’t sure whether it was a case of security didn’t care, whether they were just slow, or they didn’t think it was anything serious. He found himself a little riled up, thinking whether the security took campus security seriously or not.

Mari had already left with Clary and Maia, so Alec was left to find his way to the archery try-outs himself.

\---

The sun was out and a warm breeze caressed Alec’s cheek as he walked across campus. With the archery try-outs beginning at two-thirty and the rest of the try-outs happening throughout the day, people were busying around campus and the sports fields. All these people that Alec didn’t recognise and would likely never see them again. He didn’t know how old any of them were, what they were studying or which year of their studies they were in.

A wave of cool air hit Alec’s face as he walked into the sports hall where the archery try-outs were happening. A series of five targets had been set up all in a line along the back wall to allow multiple people to try at once. All four walls were completely wooden and looked to be a good number of years old and the ceiling looked almost too high to see, especially since ropes and netting littered the ceiling itself. What got Alec was the sheer number of people that had turned up, although around the hall, Magnus was nowhere to be seen – not even up in the elevated seating area that the hall strangely had.

While the campus itself might not have been the biggest, the number of students shocked him. A line of people, at least fifteen long looked to be waiting to try out for archery alone, where Alec found himself at the back of. Alec had only tried it a few times before but he was pretty skilled when it came to a bow and arrow.

“Alright.” A voice started, a man who looked like a teacher or instructor of some kind. His eyes looked tired and his hair a dirty blond colour. “We’ve got limited time for this, so I’ve been sent to make sure no one gets hurt. First five people come up here.” 

The line moved so that one person stood opposing each target. Then another person stepped forward, another man, but one who looked more of age to be on the archery team. He was tall, muscular but with a slender frame. Platinum blond hair, not helping his pale skin. Despite being at the back of the line of people, Alec could see how dark the boy’s eyes were. There was something about him that unsettled Alec, he looked like the person that didn’t get along with people very easily.

“Boys and girls.” His voice was clear. “My name is Sebastian – head of the archery team. And with a couple of our members graduating last year, we’re looking to replace them. So, out of the sixteen of you, hopefully two of you will be good enough.” As he spoke, the five that were already at the targets were being given bows and arrows. Arrows that looked a little off to Alec. “Now since they’re wanting us to clear out a quickly as possible from here. We’re not using real arrows today, and the targets and just sandbags. If you get a good enough shot off, the arrow will hit the sandbag and leave an indentation of where it hit, from there we will be able to judge how well you did. Also, we’d like people who are actually half decent at this sport”

A few of the people in front of Alec looked visibly uncomfortable, turning to whisper things to one another.

“Ready?” Sebastian started. The line of bows raised, the two on the far end of the line wobbling slightly. “Fire.” His voice sounded flat and yet it still cut through Alec. 

The five bows fired. Erratic was the only way they could have been described. The two at the end failed to get the arrows more than two feet ahead of them. People in the other three positions fared slightly better, positions one and three made it two thirds of the way to the target and position number two’s arrow hit bottom left corner the target to the right of the one they aimed for.

“Alright.” Sebastian said with a sigh. “Three, come over here. One, two, four and five… I think you get it.” The young-looking girl, ‘Three’, made her way to Sebastian and the other two men. She looked fresh out of high school and far younger than the others. “Next five, line up.” Sebastian ordered.

Five more people lined up and were given the same bows and arrows the others had. They fired and were just as pitiful as the others. Without even needing Sebastian to say anything, the five all left with their tails between their legs and another five lined up, leaving Alec to be the only one left in the line.

His stomach dropped at the prospect of being singled out, where the others had four others buffers, he was about to be alone. He scanned the sports hall again, specifically the stands. His mind was rushing and desperately hoped Magnus had finally showed up. He hadn’t checked during the time that the other people in line were firing, he wanted to see what he was up against, which wasn’t much. As the final five fired and all subsequently missed other than ‘Five’, a girl who looked equally as young as Three, all Alec had to do was hit his own target and he would be in.

One final scan of the stands. Finally. A portion of the weight lifted as he saw Magnus on the very back row, sat alone and staying completely silent. The two smiled at one another as their eyes met.

“You!” Sebastian’s voice echoed through the hall as Alec snapped away from Magnus. “In or out?” Alec realised that the last of the other applicants had left already and it was just him waiting.

“Uhh, in.” Alec said, trying to muster some semblance of confidence.

“Step up then.” Sebastian’s tone was flat, he clearly wasn’t expecting much from Alec after everyone else’s performance. “You literally just need to hit your own target. That’s it.”  
A person, who Alec could have almost mistaken for a goblin or some kind of slave, stepped up and handed him one of the bows and a single arrow. The bow felt lighter than Alec had been expecting and the arrow, instead of having an arrowhead had only a nub. If you were hit by it, it would hurt but it wouldn’t pierce the skin.

“Any time. But do hurry up.”

Alec raised the bow and drew back the string with the arrow in place. The peripherals of his vision slowly cut out as he focused on the target before him. Silence took over the world as Alec breathed. And that was it. He released the arrow, it flew through to air at an alarming rate, or as fast as the bow would allow. It landed directly in the centre of the target, pushing it backwards against the wall. Alec lowered the bow and his head instinctively went to Magnus who was beaming in the corner.

“Bloody hell.” Alec’s head turned to Sebastian. “What’s your name?”

“A-Alec. Alec Lightwood.”

“Very well, Alec. Welcome to the team.” Sebastian was smiling, although he looked like the kind of person who didn’t smile that often, so it turned into more of a sneer. “Three, you’re out. Five, you’ll do.”

Sebastian walked over to Alec, the other two and Five staying in place as Three slunk out of the building.

“Congratulations. You’re the only capable person who tried out today.”

“Thanks.” Alec didn’t want to say much at risk of ruining the chance he had just been given. “I’ve done this before.”

“Evidently.” Sebastian’s eyebrows were raised. “Here.” He handed Alec a white towel with the college logo on the front as well as the word ‘Archery’. “You’ll get yours, the actual shirt, like the rest of us with your name on it when you start practice – the Monday after next, seven in the evening, here, by the way. You said your name was Lightwood?”

“Uhh, yeah.” Alec’s eyes went down to the logo on the top left of Sebastian’s shirt, underneath the word ‘Archery’ was ‘Morgenstern’. Alec attributed that to being his surname. Sebastian Morgenstern.

“Alright then, Alec Lightwood. I shall see you back here then. I expect great things from you after. Well that.” He said, turning to the target.

“Don’t you need me to show you more than one shot?” Alec asked as he handed to bow back to the person who gave him it.

“No. I can see that you’re more than capable. Certain more so than most. See you around, Alec.” He said, not giving Alec the chance to speak before he walked back to the others.

\---

Alec was grateful that clouds had taken over the sky. He hadn’t exactly dressed appropriately for the sun, or archery, but that hadn’t stopped the black clothes from coming out. 

Magnus had texted him to meet his around the front entrance and Mari had already basically done the same, seeing as though Clary and Maia’s try-outs had already finished. While Magnus was there at the front entrance to the sports hall, Mari wasn’t. She went on to text Alec telling him and Magnus to meet them in the city. Clary had done the same with Magnus.

“Congratulations, Alec.” Magnus said, embracing him. Alec still felt a little awkward as he didn’t one-hundred percent know exactly where the two of them were. When he saw Magnus at first, the thought of maybe his kiss was a little too much. But then remembering their date, that blew everything off as to knowing where they were. “Sebastian looked impressed with you.” While Sebastian looked impressed, Magnus didn’t sound it. “But then again, who wouldn’t be impressed with you.” Magnus said, releasing Alec.

“Thanks. What was with you being all the way in the back in there, by the way?”

“Oh, I’m just not the biggest fan of Sebastian.”

“Really? Did- did I do something wrong, by getting on the archery team?” The dropping feeling returned to Alec’s stomach and he could have sworn he felt the colour flush from his face.

“Not at all, Alec.” Magnus smiled. “We just don’t see eye to eye on things, that’s all. I’m not personally a fan of how he coaches ‘his archery team’, although they do get results, so I’m not really sure I can complain.”

“What do you mean?” Alec was hesitant to ask as the two of them started walking.

“Oh, you saw how he was with the kids who didn’t make the team. His methods are just a little, rough for my liking. I suppose it’s just a personal thing.”

“I get what you mean.” Alec looked to the ground. “He kicked that girl out just because I hit the target.”

“I know.” Magnus sounded almost defeated. “This might sound mean, but what are the odds you’ll even see her again, though? And you made the team. That shot was incredible – you could give Sebastian a run for his money, I bet. I’ve seen what he’s capable of and I’ve not seen him do anything like you did in there.”

“But if you don’t really like him would you have seen him do much of anything?”

“Fair point.” Magnus said, smiling. “Oh, I got us a cab, by the way.” He turned to Alec. “Better than waiting for the shuttle and I didn’t bring my car.” This was something Alec wasn’t going to contest. “One more thing, Alec – it’s nothing bad, by the way, so don’t worry.”

“Alright…” Despite Magnus telling him not to worry, hearing the phrase ‘don’t worry’, is obviously going to make someone worry – which it did Alec.

“Be careful around Sebastian.” Magnus’ tone had shifted significantly; the light-heartedness had dissipated from his voice. “I realise that I said we don’t see eye to eye, but he had a habit of being… a little controlling to his team. I’m only telling you this because I care about you Alec, and I certainly don’t want you getting hurt – not if I can help it.”

Where Alec’s stomach had previously flipped. It was his heart this time. And along with it came a rushing feeling through his chest. His uncertainty with Magnus was slowly fading away over time. The first date was a good start, then going for lunch later that week. Then he came to watch him try out – he had even been the only person other than those doing to try outs in the sports hall.

“I’ll be careful, don’t worry. I’m not exactly planning on trying to overthrow him or anything. Not any time soon, at least. Let’s maybe wait until next year.”

\---

Alec and Magnus met up with Mari, Clary and Maia outside of a corner café that the girls had already decided on. Once inside, Clary and Maia told the others that while Maia had made the team they tried out for, Clary didn’t. The only reason that the two had tried out was to do something together and since Clary didn’t make it, Maia decided against joining the team, despite the fact Clary had told her to go for it anyway – Maia was adamant in not doing it without her, however.

“Alec here made it onto the archery team – impressed Sebastian even.” Magnus started. He and Alec were sat on a green couch together while the girls were sat on the other side of the table, on stools.

“Wait. As in the really intense one?” Clary asked.

“Yes.” Magnus nodded. “Although it might have had something to do with the fact that everyone other than Alec who tried out were not great.” Alec felt himself turning red again, and clearly Magnus noticed again. “There’s no need to be modest about it, you were the best person there.”

“The intense one?” Maia said to Clary, but secretly hoping that Magnus or Alec would be able to clear it up.

“It was really strange,” Alec started, “he lined up everyone in groups of five and had them fire at targets all the same time. And kicked everyone out who didn’t hit the target. There weren’t any second chance either. So, my shot could have just been a fluke.”

“A fluke? Not from what I saw.” Magnus was in disbelief. “I think Sebastian better watch out, otherwise Alec may end up dethroning him.” Alec wasn’t even sure whether he wanted to stop Magnus from talking anymore. Especially when he noticed the smile that Clary gave to Mari. One that probably meant they would end up talking about him later.

While Magnus did know Clary from before the two of them came to college, all of them – besides Magnus were still in first year. So, despite the fact of all of them being friends, Magnus still knew more about the people at the college. Especially since it had dawned on Alec that Magnus was completely different to the kinds of people that Alec would, by choice, normally associate with. Although, there was a part of him that knew he shouldn’t give up on Magnus or any of his friends at the risk of potentially isolating himself from everyone.

The five of them sat and talked for what seemed like hours. Alec felt completely at ease, even sat next to Magnus. He felt his arm resting against Magnus’ on multiple occasions and while Magnus was never the one to move, Alec did as soon as he realised, thinking it was too much. Everything finally felt like it was beginning to fall into place. He apparently had managed to get himself into a group of friends, and was even dating one of them.

As soon as his mind went to Magnus alone. It began to fog. They had known each other for a tiny amount of time and he felt as though Magnus would be one of those kinds of people he could tell his deepest, darkest secrets to. Although one thing poked at the back as his mind: whether they were actually in a relationship or not. And Alec dared not ask for fear that Magnus wasn’t taking the two of them seriously. Magnus had far more credibility than Alec’s none existent numbers so could drop him for someone better at any time. However, another voice fought back, telling him that if Magnus didn’t care, then he wouldn’t even be with him at all – and only when he wanted to be.

The buzzing of Mari’s phone snapped him back into the room.

“Huh, I didn’t know I had any other friends.” Mari said, laughing before staring at her phone. Alec wasn’t the only one who noticed her face visibly drop.

“Everything okay?” Maia asked, leaning over.

“It’s fine. But, Alec, we need to go – apparently the security guys finally got the police around to talk to us. So, we need to head down to the police station since they couldn’t afford to send anyone out to us. And apparently, we need to get there right now. She sighed as she stood up and said goodbye to the other three.

“I’m sorry.” Alec said quietly to Magnus. “I’ve gotta go.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Magnus smiled, standing up with Alec. “I’ll see you soon anyway.” He kissed Alec on the cheek before Mari practically dragged Alec away.


	10. Take Me Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The time has come for Alec to recount the events with Valentine to the police. This, and facing Sebastian afterwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're more than halfway done with this fic now. It comes in at a total of 18 chapters. I may have also posted this a few hours later than I meant do, I do have a legitimate reason in that I've been in four different cities today which really takes it out of you with all the travelling I've done.

(Saturday afternoon)

Alec and Mari hurried out of the café and towards the police station. An address had been sent to Mari along with the fact that they needed to get there within thirty minutes of Mari receiving the message. What Alec found odd was that he wasn’t sent the same message that Mari got.

Something that Alec never really thought about now that he had moved was what other cities had actually been like. He hadn’t realised that the city he now lived in, seemed to have districts within it that, for the most part, revolved around the plaza by the bus station. With all of the bars and restaurants being concentrated onto three different streets, the majority of the office buildings seemed to be in the same district to one another. And the ‘big, important’ buildings such as the public library, an art gallery, town hall and the police station were all housed in another district, in and among other places for the public.

When Alec and Mari spoke to the man on reception in the police station, they were told to wait aside as the people who were expecting them were currently busy. Alec spent the time trying to listen in on any of the conversations that he could hear going on behind the reception desk. The first, and only, conversation he managed to overhear was a woman on the phone reporting a robbery that had happened in her home. Not that he was wishing crimes would be committed, he just wanted to be able to hear something that would take his mind off being where he was. Especially since it had taken so long for the police to get involved.

Mari was called away into a room, alone, before Alec. The man on the reception called her through, no one even came to see her until she was out of sight. Alec wasn’t entirely sure how seriously that the police were taking everything. After ten minutes of sitting alone, reading about how ‘you could claim compensation’ on a cork board, Mari returned and Alec was sent through reception to where Mari had previously been, she told Alec, in passing, that she would wait for him to come back out.

Through reception, the police station was far less exciting than he was expecting it to be. It was more people sat at computers behind desks typing away than he expected. While he wasn’t expecting to see anything high end, like the major art crimes he had secretly hoped for, he assumed that he might see a low-end thug, or anything.

Now out of sight of Mari, Alec was greeted by a woman with wrinkled skin and poorly dyed brown hair who led him further into the police station, through more of the same. More computers and desks. There were a few people in police uniforms the deeper he went into the station, getting closer to what he was actually expecting. The woman dropped him off at an empty desk where he was told to wait for the person it belonged to – a man she referred to as ‘Mr. Garroway’.

Alec looked around the room, he felt his skin crawl a little. He could feel the blow of cool air on the exposed part of his arm from under his rolled-up sleeves. There were no air-con units that Alec could see around the room, but he could still feel and hear the air being pumped out. He wasn’t entirely sure how much of a difference that it made into the room, even though the room felt cool, the air felt completely stale – as though the cops didn’t know what an open window was or how to open them. He would occasionally hear a raucous laugh coming from behind a door that looked to be a break room of some sort. Although, from the number of messy desks, it seemed like breaks often didn’t leave the desks.

A few moments after being left alone, a man turned up at the desk. Alec stood back up to shake his hand. What surprised Alec was how similar the man’s body type was almost identical to his own, height included and wore a grey shirt that hugged his body. Although, the man’s hair was completely black and almost completely shaved. He went on to introduce himself as ‘Luke Garroway’, the ‘Mr. Garroway’ the woman mentioned, presumably.

Lights flickered as the two of them sat down, either side of the desk, with Luke groaning a little as he sat.

“We’ve already spoken to your friend, as I’m sure you know.” Luke said. Alec held his tongue as he immediately wanted to try and question why it took anyone so long to get back to them after being threatened. “I know it’s taken a while to get to you on this, but I want you to know that we are taking this seriously.”

“Okay.” Alec said hesitantly, he wasn’t entirely sure whether they would be any help or not.

“So, your friend, Mari, she told us that it was a guy called Val?” Alec nodded in response. “Did he tell you that that was his name?”

“No, one of my other friends told me that he knew about him.”

Luke looked at Alec. To Alec, it felt like Luke thought that he was lying to him, even though it crossed his mind, there was no good reason to lie. It was just the fact that he didn’t want to mention that Magnus was his boyfriend. Alec wasn’t sure why he didn’t say boyfriend immediately, although there was a part of him that thought that he wouldn’t have been taken as seriously if he had said the word ‘boyfriend’.

“Could you describe the man for me? Mari said that she couldn’t really remember anything out of fear.”

“Yeah. He was a little shorter than me, it looked like he shaved his head. That looked almost like a triangle, with a pointed chin. And his eyes seemed… black. Not like full, complete demon black-“

“Alright.” Luke interrupted before sighing. “I think I know who you’re describing.” He typed for no more than two seconds before swinging his computer monitor around to face Alec. “Is this the guy you saw?”

Alec stared at the computer screen and felt his stomach drop, he suddenly felt far heavier than he did before. Slapped across the monitor was a police record with ‘Val’s’ face right there. Alec looked over to the name to the side. ‘Valentine Morgenstern’. Morgenstern, just like Sebastian. 

It suddenly clicked in Alec head why Magnus wanted him to be careful around Sebastian. If, presumably his father, would casually threaten the life of college students, then what would Sebastian be capable of. While Alec knew that children weren’t always going to turn out the same as their parents (since he certainly hadn’t), there was always the chance that they would. And since Sebastian was captain of the archery team, that made him pretty dangerous with a bow and arrow. Not exactly someone you would want to get on the wrong side of.

“Yeah. It is.” Alec was hesitant to say much more and was hoping that Mari had told Luke what happened between them.

“He’s been on the radar for a while.” Luke’s tone sounded a little grim. “Shockingly enough, he’s caused problems for us before. Although,” Luke turned the monitor back round, “he doesn’t usually come out and do things like that himself. He’ll usually send-off someone to do things like that for him.” Luke sighed. “He’s got a big enough gang…” Alec sat in waiting, he wasn’t sure whether he should be speaking back to Luke or what he should even be doing other that sitting and listening. “Sorry.” Luke broke back into the conversation with “Valentine – he’s fancies himself as a mob boss, but he’s really just a gang leader. I guess they’re the same things, but we tend to think of mobs as more dangerous. Although, he is pretty dangerous himself. I have to ask you now, what did he want with you and Mari?”

“I don’t know.” Alec couldn’t lie if he wanted to. He really didn’t know what Valentine wanted with Mari in the first place. “Mari told me that he followed Mari and this other girl, Clary one night. Why he did that, I couldn’t tell you.” Luke furrowed his brow as Alec spoke, as if thinking – and then sighed to himself.

“Well, that doesn’t sound like anything he’s done before. As far as we know, he’s been involved in drug rings and money laundering, but we’ve never been able to catch him on either of those. We’ve only ever been able to get him on assault and even then, it was a struggle to find him. So, I’m thinking that whatever he’s doing, it’s going to be something bigger this time around.”

“The money laundering wasn’t something big?” Alec questioned. Drug rings, fair enough, they were often small and not much of a problem for the city. But when it came to money laundering, they were often larger operations.

“Not on the scale that you would think.” Luke took a moment to think. “Right now, we can get him on assault again, we saw what he did on the security cameras outside your building. But there isn’t that much else we can do as of right now. I’m going try and get some of my guys into your campus security office, when they got Mari’s message to us, it was days after the incident.” Luke sighed again. “I’m thinking your campus security assume that nothing bad is ever going to happen so they’re seriously lax about everything. With my guys, they’ll be more diligent if anything comes up. And then I’ll give you my number, like I did for Mari. Call me if you need anything, okay?”

“Uhh, sure.” Alec’s insides sank. Part of him was disappointed, but another part knew that Luke was right. And at least they were keeping an eye out for Val, now Valentine. Additionally, at least the police had evidence to arrest Valentine on, as well.

“Sorry, that there isn’t more that I can do, right now.” Luke stood up, urging Alec to do the same and proceeded to walk him back through the station to the reception area where Mari was still sat. “Don’t be afraid to call me if anything comes up.” Luke said, before disappearing back into the station.

\---

Alec and Mari had left the station. While Mari was waiting, Clary texted her, asking if she and Alec wanted the other to wait for them before they left. She told them that there was no need for them to wait since she didn’t know how long she and Alec were going to be, although she wasn’t particularly expecting the process to be over as quick as it was.

“You were in and out a lot quicker than I was, Alec.” Mari said. “Did he just, like, not ask you that much?”

“Not really. He told me that he told you most of the same stuff as me and then that guy was called ‘Valentine’. Then he showed me a file about Valentine, like a rap sheet of things that he’d done before.”

“Oh yeah, like the drug ring thing. And the money laundering?”

“Yeah, but want to know the best part about this? Valentine’s last name? It’s Morgenstern – same as Sebastian’s.”

“Wait! Really? So, like, is Valentine Sebastian’s dad?”

“I think so.” Alec’s face turned to the pavement while they walked. “I guess now I know why Magnus told me to be careful around Sebastian, or why he doesn’t really get along with him?”

“You think it has something to do with Valentine?”

“That would be my guess, yeah. Magnus has been here a year longer than the rest of us, so he might have run into Valentine in that time.” Alec went quiet and started to think. It was along the lines of ‘what if Magnus was in business with Valentine?’ But that thought was swiftly thrown out of his mind. Magnus was a college student just like the rest of them. And other than the exclusive restaurant, he hadn’t shown any evidence to suggest that he had even been involved in any kind of shady business – he had no reason to doubt Magnus. “I’ll probably have to ask Magnus when I see him.” Alec said quietly.

“Well, I guess if anyone is going to know anything, it would be him. Just be careful about how you word it, though. You don’t want to sound like you’re accusing him of anything.”

“Accusing him? I don’t even know what I would be accusing him of?” Then what she was saying hit him. There was the chance that it might sound like he would be accusing Magnus of being aligned with Valentine and his gang. Although, there was the chance that Alec was completely overthinking everything. That’s what shot into his head afterwards. Maybe Magnus and Sebastian just didn’t get along – like some people do. He knew that there was a good, if not great, chance that Magnus didn’t know anything about Valentine. “Oh, wait. Yeah, never mind.”

“Don’t worry about it, I doubt he’ll have done anything anyway.” Mari make her best effort to sound reassuring. “From what I’ve seen of him, Magnus just seems like a bit of a party boy, that’s it. And I’m certain that he just got popular the good old-fashioned way.”

“Which is?”

“How should I know?” She laughed. “Look at me. Do you want me to give you some cringe fueled speech about how I study the arts and that I’m weird?”

“Alright. I get it.”

“He’s friends with Travis, right? So, he obviously just managed to make friends with the people in his year that are in the spotlight and then he just showed off how amazing he was.”

“That I can agree with.” Alec nodded, but stopping his speech suddenly, having realised was he just said.

“Good. Now, Mr. Lightwood, if we’re done here, then take me home!” She ordered, jumping onto Alec’s back. “All this action wore me out.”

“Not enough to not be a hassle, though.”

“Shh. Let’s just go.”

\---

The Monday of Alec’s first practice for the archery team came around, he ultimately decided against asking Magnus whether he knew Valentine. It came to a point to where he almost did ask, but Magnus beat him to it by telling him what happened between Sebastian and himself.

As far as stories go, it wasn’t nearly as exciting as Alec expected it to be. The long and short of it was that Magnus had made friends with Travis and for a reason that Magnus still wasn’t aware of, practically a year later, Sebastian and Travis got into a fight and Magnus, obviously, sided with his friend over Sebastian. That, ultimately, led to Magnus having the opinion of Sebastian that he was the type of person to pick fights with other people so that he could be in charge, thinking that he had some primal way of thinking. He went on to tell Alec that he wasn’t even sure that Sebastian was his real first name.

He wished Alec well and told him to be careful around Sebastian again just before he headed away to practice, back in the sport hall.

The hall was cold and unwelcoming. Nothing like it had been during the try-outs. Nets that previously hung from the ceiling had been lowered over the walls and exits, giving the impression that anyone in the sports hall had been captured. Only a few of the lights had been switched on and as Alec brushed a net out of his way to get in, he saw three figures stood under them – the same three that had been at the try-outs: Sebastian and his two lackeys.

One of the lackeys noticed Alec walking towards them and let Sebastian know. This resulted in the two facing away from Alec to turn towards him. As he walked, he felt like a lamb to slaughter. He was walking towards these three people that clearly were looking down on him, despite the limited skill he was able to show them previously.

“Alec.” Sebastian called out, his voice echoed throughout the hall, the net not enough to stop it. People would be able to hear them if they were loud enough. “Glad to see one of our new recruits showed up.” Alec looked over his shoulder as Sebastian spoke. He was right, the other person (whose name Alec couldn’t remember other than Five.) hadn’t shown up. His thoughts went to that they were obviously scared away which Alec couldn’t particularly blame them for. “I suppose one is better than none, at least.” Sebastian seemed to speak to himself. “Although, we are going to have to find a replacement.”

“Uhh… hi.” Alec was hesitant to stand too close to the three staring him down. “I’m not late, am I?”

“Not at all, Alec.” Sebastian sighed. Alec was ten minutes early, seeing how intense Sebastian was just talking to himself, Alec wasn’t in any rush to be in his bad graces. “Here. Your uniform.” Sebastian held out a shirt in his hand that Alec promptly took. “Sorry if it isn’t your size, but I’ve never been wrong about those things before.” Somehow, Sebastian had managed to get a shirt that was Alec’s size. They hadn’t even asked for any sizes from him, everything had just sort of happened. “Normally I would expect you to arrive here in that shirt, but given this is the first you’re getting of it… well, you get it.”

“Yeah, I do. Do you want me to change into it? Or…?” Alec unrolled it fully in his arms. Much like how Sebastian’s had the name ‘Morgenstern’ on it, Alec’s had ‘Lightwood’ stitched into it.

“You’re fine for today.” The whole time Sebastian spoke, there was no wavering in his tone. Whatever he was going to talk about, he was serious about it. Alec couldn’t help but wonder what kinds of things that Sebastian would do for fun – if he even was capable of feeling that emotion. “I also heard that you and one of your friends had a run in with my father, didn’t you? Outside of the Aquila?”

There it was. What Alec was hoping wouldn’t come up and Sebastian brought it up immediately. Alec had hope that Sebastian would take his and Mari’s side over his father’s, especially since he was the one who had followed Mari and thrown Alec.

“He’s your father?” Alec said, trying to feign idiocy over the matter. He hoped that if Sebastian thought the he didn’t know that Valentine was his father then he might be a little kinder. Although, Alec wasn’t entirely sure what ‘kind’ was when it came to Sebastian.

“Yes.” Sebastian sighed to himself. “I hadn’t heard from my father in a while. I was hoping he wouldn’t be quite as… feral as what I had heard. He was terrorising your friend. Mari, I believe?” What took Alec was how calm Sebastian was being. Almost sympathetic. “I usually try and not associate with my father if he does things like that, but sometimes you can’t help it. Family and all that.”

“I… I understand.”

“Well, I trust that the two of you are both alright. You and Mari, that is.”

“Yeah, we’re… we’re good, thank you.” Alec stumbled on his words. The Sebastian he was seeing was nothing like he was expecting, sure he wasn’t exactly welcoming to him, but he wasn’t being unkind. And the fact that he was taking his and Mari’s side was something he hadn’t expected. He didn’t exactly want to mention the death threat that he had received. What he was getting from Sebastian was most likely more than what anyone else had gotten in a good while from him.

“Good.” Sebastian sighed again, more severely this time. “Well. I should hope that my father wouldn’t get in the way of the only decent archer I saw at try-outs, ready to get started?” Sebastian said with a smirk.


	11. Revolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After his run in with Valentine and the police, Alec and Magnus take some much needed time for themselves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I got my plot wrong. I thought something else happened in this chapter, but what I was thinking happened in this chapter happens in the next.

(the weekend after Alec’s practice)

“He sided with you?” Magnus asked.

“Thank you for the re-assuring tone.” Alec responded.

It was a cool morning on the weekend and the first time that Alec and Magnus had managed to actually get together in almost a week, and neither of them were the best texters. Archery practice happened three nights a week for Alec and add that in with the reading and the work he needed to do week to week didn’t leave him with all that much free time, especially when Mari insisted on showing him a movie whenever he was free. He wasn’t exactly going to suddenly disappear and never return if he didn’t watch something with Mari every other day. With Magnus being the social butterfly that he was, compared to Alec, even though he wasn’t on any sports team, he still found himself busy, even if it was just around his place. Leaving the weekend to be the first chance the two had to see each other all week.

“I’m just surprised, is all.” Magnus laughed. “I would have thought that there would have been no way he would have gone against his father for people he doesn’t really know.”

“Maybe he’s just really desperate for my archery skills.” 

Alec had a good point about his archery skills. From his three practice sessions, Sebastian had already managed to find a fifth member for the team. He was also clearly the best out of the group, thus he remained as captain. The newbie, whose name Alec had troubles remembering, just like their face, was the weakest of the bunch. And then Alec stuttered between second and fourth, as did Sebastian’s two cronies. There were times where Alec had exceeded their skills and times where they did the same to him. At points, he wondered whether they had taken it easy on him in the beginning, but once they realised he could overtake them then they ramped up their game.

“I wouldn’t blame him. I snuck in to one of the practices to watch you through those nets, you’re damn good, Alec.”

“You snuck in?” Alec said, baffled.

“I did. In between things I was doing.” Magnus sighed to himself. “I could only stay for about ten minutes, however, places to be.” Magnus’ tone wavered, lowering a little.

“Are you okay, Magnus?” Alec asked, knowing full well that there was. Magnus had sunk into his chair and the bags under his eyes were more prominent then he had ever seen. He assumed that they would always be there, a least a little bit, they were college students, so it would be natural that they would be a little tired. “You don’t seem like yourself.”

“I’m fine, Alexander.” That struck Alec. It was the first time that Magnus had called him that. Sure, that was his name, Alec shortened, but he wasn’t used to anyone actually using it. “Just a little tired. I have a lot of things going on. Someone thought it would be a good idea for me to organise the Winter Whatever dance coming up. See? I can’t even remember the name of a party I’m throwing.”

“I had no idea that you were involved in that.”

“Well, neither did I until a few days ago. But I was pigeonholed into it since apparently, I ‘throw the best parties’.” He said the last of that sentence with air quotes.

“Didn’t you get a choice?” Alec’s tone turned serious.

“I did. But the dean seemed adamant in me doing it. Now with that, among everything else that I’ve managed to get myself in charge of and a part of – I’m just a little worn out. What I’m in need of, is more times just like this, with you, Alec. Just to be sat here, enjoying company of those I care about.”

“I- well… thanks?” Alec questioned immediately why he said that. Magnus was far better at giving compliments than he was, mostly just because Magnus was more used to receiving them than Alec was. Magnus laughed weakly to himself.

“You’re a far cry from what I’m used to, Alec. And it’s wonderful. I’m used to people trying far too hard to try and get into my good graces in the hopes that they’ll climb the social ladder here. But, truth be told, I’m not entirely sure how I even made it here. My first year, I lived next door to Travis, who you’ve met, and we somehow became the best of friends, then it all just spiralled from there.” Magnus sighed as he thought. “Not spiralling in a bad way, even though that usually is a bad thing. I think I just managed to make friends with the people who ended up on some of the bigger sports teams.”

“I can understand that getting pretty tiring. Does it happen that often?”

“Thankfully, it seems pretty quiet right now. Gives me a little bit of a break, but it could pick up at any time.” Before Alec had a chance to respond, Magnus continued. “I just realised that makes me sound incredibly ungrateful for how lucky that I’ve gotten and how lucky I was last year.”

“I wasn’t really thinking about it.” The truth was, Alec didn’t care in the slightest about how popular or unpopular Magnus was, he just wanted to be with him.

The thought of taking their relationship to the next step had crossed Alec’s mind on more than one occasion. Sure, they kissed, made out a little. That was something that Alec enjoyed, and he noticed that certain parts of his body enjoyed it even more. But sex was a whole other thing. A whole other thing in that Alec had never done it. He had lied to his friends back home, getting them to think he slept with a girl, Jessica. Thankfully they were dumb enough to believe it. The thought of sex with Magnus stirred Alec up, he was almost certain that he wanted to, he just felt like the opportunity never presented itself, or he didn’t have the nerve to talk about it. It didn’t help that Magnus clearly was more experienced than Alec. Although, literally doing anything sexual with another person would make you more experienced than Alec was.

“Well, do you think that I could steal you away from you adoring public for this weekend?” Alec asked. While Alec was the one asked there was a part of him immediately regretting it since he didn’t know anything that couples did, period. Considering Magnus was the first person he’d been in a relationship.

“I think I could work that out for my boyfriend. And I don’t have anything planned.” Magnus held his hands up. “I’m all yours until Monday.”

“It was really that easy?”

“Well. I’m a very busy person. But for the right people,” Magnus winked, “I’m available whenever they need me to be.” Over the wink, the eye shadow looked to have an extremely subtle glitter to it. It was one of the things that Alec had come to really appreciate about Magnus. Whatever he ended up wearing, either on his body or his face, he always managed to make it look amazing. There were things that Alec had seen Magnus wearing that other people surely would have worn, but surely Magnus looked better in them. There was no competition when it came to that.

Alec wasn’t sure what it was, but there was something about Magnus. With his level of popularity and all of the people around him. One would expect him to be some kind of spoilt brat who lives for taking advantage of people and was some kind of player. What Alec was happy about was that Magnus, from what he had seen, was the complete opposite of that. As popular as he was and with as many people vying to be his friend, he still ended up coming back to the same group of friends that he knew and trusted above everyone else.

“Alright. So, where do you want to start?”

\---

The two of them headed away from campus and found themselves into the city. People lined the streets, busting around from place to place. Buskers that had previously been around the plaza outside of the bus station had seemingly multiplied with the number of tourists. 

With Alec’s height came the difficulty of needing to bob and weave between bodies. He found himself becoming increasingly annoyed with the tourists, especially so with the ones that were taking pictures of seemingly nothing. He could have understood if they were taking photographing thing like the statue at the centre of the plaza and the plaque underneath it, but no. The majority of them were photographing random buildings around the city. That was the thing that Alec didn’t understand, the buildings weren’t anything special and they didn’t look particularly unique. He couldn’t help but feel bad for the people who lived in the city centre, however, they would have to deal with tourists all the time. Sure, it wasn’t as bad in the week, but there would have been people who would have only been able to get out at the weekends and that’s what they would have to deal with.

Bubbling internally, the annoyance Alec was feeling attempted to fight its way to the surface, but there was no way that he was letting it out, not around Magnus. And especially not in public. Sure, if he wanted Magnus and himself to stay together, they would see things like this eventually, but he didn’t want something so trivial to slip out so unnecessarily. If he were to get angry around Magnus, he wanted it to be over something meaningful.

Alec didn’t know where the two of them were going, he was just following Magnus’ direction while pulling him along behind him. The two of them agreed using Alec’s height would make it easier for the two of them to work their way through the crowds and out from the main plaza. The further they moved from the plaza the thinner the crowds got. Before heading where Magnus had planned, Alec led them from the station.

The crowd looked more domineering than Alec had previously thought. As the two of them made it out of the crowd and up a set of stairs to head down a side street, Alec took a moment to look out over the crowd. The room the two of them had, pushing through, somehow seemed to be more than most of the others had. The crowd wasn’t over the whole plaza, however, it seemed to be in more concentrated bunches, forming around the different buskers and the central statue. If you didn’t know any better you might have thought that the statue was missing from The Louvre with the crowds it had drawn.

\---

Once completely free, Magnus led the two of them back to the café that they had been sat in before Alec and Mari were called away. In Magnus’ words ‘maybe you’ll actually get to finish your drink this time’.

The air in the café was worlds away from that of the plaza. Where it was almost at the point of being unable to hear yourself think at the plaza, it was so serene in the café that you could almost hear someone else thinking. There was a water feature, flowing gently, in a back corner that Alec hadn’t noticed the last time that he was there. Somehow, there were less people in than when he had been previously. It wasn’t something he was about to complain about, especially over the weekend.

Despite the fact it was Alec who had asked if he could get Magnus to himself the whole weekend, Magnus decided that he would take charge in where the two of them would go. Even if Alec had wanted to be in charge, from the time that he had known Magnus, he could tell that he was the one who was better at event planning out of the two of them, so he gladly let Magnus take the lead.

They made their way to a movie theatre to watch whatever the latest superhero movie was. Being dredged into watching countless movies with Mari, keeping up to date with what the latest ones available wasn’t high on Alec’s list of priorities.

\---

Alec found Magnus and himself adhering to the stereotypes of high school couples by sitting themselves at the very back of the theatre in the darkest corner they could find. Alec’s stomach jumped when he realised they were doing that, it wasn’t something inherently bad or scandalous. It was more that he just never had the opportunity to do it before he moved, when all everyone in his friend group had all found a girl or a guy to join them.

As the movie got into its main arc. Magnus’ hand found Alec’s and Alec didn’t stop it. There were people who wouldn’t be happy to see the two of them holding hands and Alec was well aware of that. He would take any opportunity he could get with Magnus where he would be free of judgment. The best part was that the movie theatre was predominantly filled with younger children who were more engrossed in the explosions of the movie itself and not about what other people were doing.

The hands had moved from holding one another to Alec’s arm being around Magnus’ shoulder and Magnus resting on Alec’s chest. At one point, Alec physically felt Magnus sigh when the characters on screen kissed, attributing it to the fact that if there is a man and a woman on screen, they couldn’t possibly be just friends. They have to be attracted to each other, there was no other possible way they could co-exist – an idea that swam through Alec’s head briefly, only for it to be pushed out by the thoughts of simply how happy he was. He could feel warmth radiating from Magnus that resonated through the entirety of his own body. That feeling was precisely what he wanted for his future.

He could imagine the two of them and only them, watching a movie in the exist position they were in now. Except for the fact they were in their modest apartment, in a nice city and neither of them had any worries apart from remembering to water their plants. And if they got tired they could fall asleep together, right there on the sofa.

If only for a moment, Alec believed that would be possible until he snapped back into reality where he realised that he was most likely thinking far too far ahead into their relationship and Magnus was thinking of nothing so long term. Alec may have felt Magnus sighing at the on-screen kiss, but what concerned him was whether Magnus thought of him to be good enough to be long term. They hadn’t been together for very long, but Magnus was the person that Alec felt most comfortable around – and it had happened quick. 

Alec knew he would have to talk about his feelings with Magnus at some point, but he was in no rush to do it. He just needed to hear something from Magnus that would quash the paranoia he had. In his mind, he could easily do it, but it was just the matter of working up the nerve to do it in the first place.

Coming to its end, the movie began to quiet down after all the on-screen explosions were nothing more than rubble and smoke and the credits began to roll. A few people, in desperate need of the bathroom, left immediately. And others left intermittently throughout the credits, Alec and Magnus included. Neither of the two realised that the movie ended up being more than two hours long, so by the time that they ended up outside of the theatre, it was well after twelve.

“You should come back to my place,” Magnus said, “I could cook for us? It would save us finding somewhere?”

“Yeah. Sure.” Alec’s voice shook a little as he spoke.

“We don’t have to, if you would rather go somewhere else.”

“No, no.” Alec knew that his tone made it sound like he was unsure of his answer, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. “You’ve… impressed me so much already, I could only dream of what your cooking is like.”

“I can’t promise anything ground breaking, but at least it will be edible.” Magnus said with a smooth chuckle.

“Considering I don’t even have a kitchen to use in my building, I’m not gonna question or criticise it, Magnus.” 

The thing that got Alec was that he was going to see where Magnus was living. Someone of his grandeur and position at the school was bound to have somewhere not terrible. Although the two of them hadn’t actually talked about where Magnus lived, Alec didn’t know whether he was going to have to meet any roommates or whether Magnus lived alone. Alec knew which side of things he stood and desperately hoped that he was right.

“Well, good. I don’t think that it’ll be the best thing you’ve eaten, but I’ll certainly try.”

“I don’t care, Magnus. I’m just happy that someone is happy to cook for me.”

“At least you’re grateful. Especially since you’re going to be in an exclusive club. I don’t cook for just anyone.” He said with a smirk.

\---

Laughter was shared between the two of them as they travelled out of the city and away from the main hub of activity. There were a few tall buildings away from the centre, marking the change from inner to outer city. Magnus told Alec they were the apartment building that most of the people who worked in the city lived. Magnus led Alec into a parking garage that led into one of the buildings, nothing out of the ordinary and no cars explicitly flashy. As they walked, however, Alec noticed Magnus’ car parked up, in a corner.

Light piano music filled the air of the elevator as Magnus reached across Alec’s body, brushing against his shirt and pressing one of the buttons for one of the higher floors. Alec might have been inexperienced, but he wasn’t stupid.

The air inside of the elevator changed as Alec turned to face Magnus, the air felt warm against his skin as he placed a hand onto Magnus’ cheek. Magnus let out a noise as though he was about to begin speaking but never managed to get the words out for Alec leaning into him.

Magnus’ face was warm under Alec’s hand as their lips met. As the elevator rose, Alec’s hand dropped down to Magnus’ waist, with his other hand on the other side, his thumbs rubbing up and down and feeling the v-line at the top of Magnus’ pelvis over his shirt. Their mouths opened wider as their tongues met, the inside of Magnus’ mouth felt just as soft to Alec as the rest of his skin did, only with an added warmth. A distinct heat began rising within Alec’s body at the exact moment a dinging sound came through the elevator.

The two separated and Alec practically spun on his heels and the doors opened silently. Relief washed over Alec as he saw that there was no one stood in the hallway. Magnus took his hand as they left the elevator in silence and walked purposefully down the hallway towards a single door at the very end. Alec didn’t even notice the Magnus unlocking the door, it seemed to fly open as Magnus pushed Alec against it, knocking him into the apartment.

Alec only got a brief glimpse of the wall before he and Magnus were kissing again and his eyes were closed.

“Not exactly that lunch I had planned.” Magnus said as he managed to break away for a moment.

“It can wait, right?”

“Definitely.” Magnus pushed the door closed with his foot, without breaking the connection with Alec.

Bodies pressed together, not breaking away from one another once, they moved towards the kitchen. Alec begun unbuttoning the first few buttons of Magnus’ shirt. Taking a moment to look, Magnus’ chest looked as though it had a sheen to it, an almost otherworldly shine.

Alec knew that there were sayings about heat and the kitchen, but it was the middle of the day and from the way his insides were feeling, he was the only one getting hot – clearly, other parts of his body were agreeing. Between heavy breaths, Magnus clearly noticed that and moved in even closer, pressing their pelvis’ together. Clearly, Alec wasn’t the only one feeling the heat as Alec felt a distinct bulge from Magnus as they pressed together.

“Why don’t we-“ Magnus began before being disrupted by rapping against the front door. Sighs were heard audibly from the both of them. “Wait here for me?”

“Of course.” Alec pulled Magnus against him once more before letting him go to the door.

From where Alec stood, watching Magnus, he looked as though he was floating to the door. Only before turning back towards Alec.

“This might sound strange,” Magnus sighed, “but I need you to hide in my bedroom for a little bit. It’s my landlord and he’s a major control freak, as in, he’s not particularly a big fan of a certain persuasion.”

“What?”

“It’s strange, I know. But could you do this for me? I’ll explain once he leaves.”

“Yeah.” The relief that Alec felt washed away as he headed towards the room Magnus pointed out.

\---

Magnus’ bedroom was just as opulent as Alec was expecting. Deep red walls and a deep black carpet surrounded a king-sized bed in the middle of the back wall. Dark brown furniture lined the walls. A large wardrobe, a chest of drawers and a vanity table. It was far bigger than his entire room. Compared to where he was staying, Magnus must have been living the high life, especially to say he was only in his second year of college.

The noise of the door opening resonated through the room. Alec moved towards the door of the bedroom and pressed his ear against the wood. Whatever the walls were made of, they were doing a good job of keeping the sounds away from Magnus, even training all his focus through the door, there were only small sections he managed to make out.  
“Magnus, son.” A voice that clearly wasn’t Magnus’ spoke. “-doing?”

“-just about- myself.” Magnus’ voice was quiet and his tone was flat, almost like he was about to sigh at any moment.”

“Well- bring your girl- over- mine! Good time.” The sound of a deep guffaw followed the voice and an awkward laugh followed from Magnus. Alec could tell Magnus wasn’t comfortable, but he still felt a pang of disappointment at the laughter

“I’ll do that. Will that be all?”

The seconds seemed to stretch as Alec looked over to a digital clock over on Magnus’ bed side table. He hadn’t been in the bedroom for more than two minutes but it felt like an eternity, waiting for the, presumed, man to leave the two of them. Any feeling of the heat that Alec previously felt had been promptly washed away. He wasn’t going to complain about being in Magnus’ bedroom, however.

A slamming sound came from the front room, followed by a few seconds of silence before Magnus told him it was safe to come back out.

“’Bring your girl’, huh?” Alec said. Magnus took a moment before only sighing in response.


	12. Everything Falls Into Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec and Magnus spend some much needed time together away from the rest of the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as a warning for people who aren't here for smut. This is the smutty chapter, so feel free to skip this one if it's not what you're after.

“’Bring your girl’?” Alec said.

“Yes.” Magnus sighed. “The landlord has it in his mind that Clary and I are together. But, since he and my father are good friends. I’m getting an exceptionally good rate on this place, so, I’m not going to correct him. Especially since he’s such an awful person.”

“What do you mean?” Alec was confused, especially since he wasn’t getting any straight answers.

“He doesn’t like anything going against tradition, Alec. Meaning he wouldn’t exactly be happy with us, together. If he found out, he would likely kick me out and then I would be homeless.”

“Magnus- I.”

“Don’t worry about it, Alec. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

“What about your father? Couldn’t he do anything, or does he know anything?” Magnus sighed as Alec spoke.

“Unfortunately, no. He knows about me, my bisexuality. And he doesn’t really care who I’m with, as long as they’re a good person at heart. But the landlord has a complete monopoly over this place. And I’m fairly certain that he has dealings with some of the shadier folk in the city.”

“Magnus.” Alec sounded defeated, he couldn’t believe what he had just heard. “So, where does that leave us?”

“What do you mean, Alec? If you’re insinuating I would break up with you over this, then you’re wrong.”

“But-“

“Alexander – you are the first person that I’ve willingly brought back here. Even my friends haven’t had that pleasure yet.” Magnus sighed. “I care, very deeply for you. And I don’t care what some homophobic landlord thinks. You might have been expecting some bigger talk from this, but there isn’t going to be one.” Alec motioned to speak, only to stop himself – the defeated feeling had returned. “Were you really that scared of losing me?”

Around Alec, the world began to change. These thoughts spiralled his mind previously, that Magnus would just hide him away, but he had no idea that he would accidentally reveal his feelings in the way he had. He thought that he was only one that was developing feelings at the rate that he was, but hearing what Magnus was telling him. They were words that he needed to hear. To know that Magnus cared about him the same way that he thought of Magnus. In response to Magnus, he dropped his head and nodded weakly. Magnus gave a quiet laugh and lifted Alec’s head back up with a soft hand, forcing their eyes to connect – Alec could have sworn that Magnus’ looked almost cat-like.  
“Alec.” Magnus whispered. “I don’t want you to ever feel like that with me.” Alec watched Magnus’ lips move as he spoke. “I understand that you may be a little green when it comes to dating, but I don’t want you to ever feel like I don’t care about you, because nothing could be further from the truth.” The two of them, in a moment, breathed together. “Alec, you’ve… you’ve unlocked something in me.”

‘Those words.’ Alec thought to himself. ‘I’ve heard them before and I feel like it was Magnus who said them to me.’ His mind made feeble attempts to try and get the words processed to uncover where he had heard them before, but to no avail. The only thing he knew was that they were good. They were what he was waiting to hear, whether he had ever known about them or not.

“Magnus, I…” Alec started, only to have his voice break under him. He felt like he was being held together by driftwood, and the power of the river was increasing. From one of his classes, Alec read of a Riverkeep, whose job it was to make sure that the river was safe and flowed normally. He thought of this and breathed. ‘Keep the river safe and the wood together’, he thought to himself and he leaned into Magnus again, parting his lips as he did. This was his attempt to channel the Alec in the elevator. “Thank you.” He whispered.

Moments after they separated, a far lighter knock at the door sounded and Alec felt the driftwood collapse. Magnus held up a finger and walked over to the door, peering through the peephole and sighing. Alec presumed the woman who stepped inside the moment Magnus opened the door to be a neighbour as he spotted an open door down the hallway.

\---

A needle dropped onto a record as the sound of strings reverbed through the apartment. Magnus sighed as he floated over towards the kitchen.

“I’m so sorry, Alec. I never wanted any of this to happen.” He crossed his arms. “Like you said this morning, this weekend was meant to be just for the two of us. I never wanted to have to hide you away and have had, pretty much, every inconvenience that could have possible happen to us so far, happen. I feel like everything, even though we haven’t really done anything, is ruined.”

“We’re alone now, aren’t we?” Alec moved closer to Magnus. “Why don’t we start with that lunch that we originally came for?”

“What I’d really like to know, Mr. Lightwood.” Magnus said, moving in even closer. “Is where did the Alec who jumped on me in the elevator come from?” Alec immediately felt a rush through his body, the same rush that he had felt before. He wrestled with himself, internally, pulling out what he could to form a sentence that would make sense.

“He… jumped out the window when your landlord showed up.” He fought the urge to retreat from Magnus. When he was certain it was just the two of them, he felt far more confident, but he stood on a glass podium in that moment, but the moment the door opened into Magnus’ apartment someone, somewhere fired a missile and smashed the podium he had been stood on. He now stood in the shards of glass that lay on the floor of where the podium once was.

“Perhaps if he’s feeling up to it,” Magnus stepped over to the refrigerator and pulled out a plastic box, “he can join us sometime in the future. I’d love to get to know him.”

“I’m sure he could… uhh.” Alec shifted his weight to the right and aimed to lean on the kitchen island as he spoke, but his actions were about as put together as his thoughts as he found himself missing the countertop and stumbling backwards. “Sometime?” He felt himself redden as he turned to look around the room. He was at least thankful of the fact that Magnus seemed to have turned away and had his face inside of a cupboard, searching for something.

One thing Alec had noticed was how nice the entire apartment was. Even the kitchen, everything looked modern, mostly clean marble counter-tops interlaced with stark black borders. And the refrigerator, almost suspiciously large for a one-bedroom apartment. For a moment, Alec wondered whether the place had been furnished so well specifically for Magnus or whether the landlord was just like that with all of their tenants. The living room was just as well decorated, if a little sparser compared to the kitchen. With a large window taking up the majority of one of the walls, a black leather sofa sat against one of the walls, that were all white, facing a large flat screen television against the opposing wall and a coffee table between them. As for the rest of the living room, a dining table and two chairs took the most part of the remaining room in the apartment.

Alec sighed to himself as he regained his composure, making the conscious effort not to be too loud and alert Magnus to his embarrassment.

\---

Whatever previous awkwardness Alec had felt while the sun was confidently in the sky had dissipated once the smell of whatever fancy food Magnus was cooking hit Alec’s nostrils. Magnus had tried, multiple times, to explain what it was to Alec, but it was just something that never completely registered with him.

Now the sun was setting and the sky was a sweet orange, Alec suddenly realised how long he had been at Magnus’ place. Perhaps they had just arrived later than he thought, or perhaps they had just been sat at Magnus’ dinner table for hours, but with the sun lowering the orange of the sky bathed the entire apartment in its glow making the whole place look unreal and like a place someone would only see in a dream. 

Adding the wine that the two of them had as they ate in with the orange glow of the apartment, Alec felt as though he may as well have left his own dimension. He definitely wasn’t drunk, not even a little buzzed, but he was at the stage where he was likely to have had an extra confidence brought out of him. With everything combine, he even found happiness in washing the dishes with Magnus in the kitchen. Magnus had insisted that since Alec was a guest that he didn’t have to help, but Alec wasn’t swayed and really just wanted the chance to be closer to Magnus.

\---

“Okay, so how does a college student manage to live this well, I gotta know?” Alec asked, the two of them had since moved away from the kitchen to Magnus’ sofa, facing one another and the television was playing quiet music in the background. “I mean, I live in a single, tiny room. And you have… this.” Alec gestured to the rest of the room, his hand lingering over at the bedroom door a little too long.

“Some people in life just get lucky I suppose.” Magnus said. “I think I must have just made the right friends. I never really went out of my way to find specific people to befriend, I just ended up like this. I am well aware that there are people whose goal it is to end up in places like this. I probably just got lucky.”

“What about living on your own? Doesn’t it get lonely?”

“It does, sometimes.” Magnus nodded. “Although, I do have plenty of people I could talk to, and now that Clary and Maia are here, I have actual people I would consider friends around. Then again, living alone does have its perks. Sometimes, days are hard – as melodramatic as that sounds – and it’s nice to know whether there’s going to be someone waiting for you when you get home or not.”

“Seems like you’ve got a lot of things figured out, here.” Magnus had managed to get everything sorted out in his first year, Alec thought. It was the dream of most people to end up in a nice apartment by the time they end up leaving college and Magnus already had it midway through. Alec couldn’t help thinking what he was going to do the next year or where he was going to end up in the future.

“I don’t think it’s so much that I have things figured out.” He said, placing his wine glass down on the coffee table and turning back to Alec. “I think that it’s more that I just managed to get lucky, and everything fell into my lap.”

“Well, lucky or not… you must be happy.” Magnus’ cat-like eyes looked to have returned and under the light of the setting sun, Magnus was given an ethereal glow behind him. And Alec felt it, physically inside of his chest – the urge to lean in growing.

“You know,” Magnus looked over to the bedroom door for a moment, “I think I am. Ever since this year began,” Magnus scooted a little closer to Alec, “things have generally been on the up for me – and meeting you has been the best part.”

Alec fought the urge to move back and instead went with the feeling in his chest. His and Magnus’ lips met. Bathed in the light of the sun, the same feeling he felt when the two first met in the club returned to him. The feeling of physical starlight shot through the window and surrounded his body, enveloping the two of them in a singular veil. Magnus’ hand was pressed, lightly, against Alec’s face as one of Alec’s running its way up and down Magnus’ side.

“Care to take this to the bedroom?” Magnus whispered in Alec’s ear as he kissed his neck. In between pleasured breaths, Alec nodded, pulling away from Magnus to stand up.

\---

As he stood, Alec’s jeans were far tighter than before. The bedroom door was already slightly ajar making it easier to open as Magnus back into it – their tongues desperately exploring each other’s mouths as they backed into it. Alec separated from Magnus long enough to pull his t-shirt off and throw it aside before he fell back onto the bed, pushing himself back so he was completely on the bed. Magnus stood considering Alec’s body before removing his own shirt and climbing atop him, planting a leg either side of Alec’s waist and bending back down to kiss him again.

Alec felt his groin stir a little as Magnus began to slowly move back and forth on top of him, he exhaled a little heavier than normal as the feeling shot through his body. Using his own feet, he kicked both of his shoes of from under him. And as Magnus sat up, off of him, he noticed that the pants that Magnus had chosen to wear weren’t the best at concealing the obvious bulge, which certainly didn’t help his own situation as he felt his own erection strain against his own jeans. The sight alone was enough to warrant a small moan out of Alec.

Hearing the sound come from Alec caused almost the same reaction from Magnus just before he pulled Alec back up off the bed and back against his body. The two of them sunk into one another as Magnus swiftly removed his pants. Considering how loose they were already, it made no real difference, other than showing off his underwear to Alec which, much like he was expecting, looked just as flashy as the rest of his wardrobe – a deep red colour that felt like silk. As the kissing continued Alec’s mind was racing and his breathing was already heavy. Bodies pressed together, Magnus moved one finger from each hand into either side of Alec’s jeans and moved them closer together until they reached the middle. Alec, stifling a moan the entire time as Magnus neared his throbbing erection.

One swift movement of Magnus’ hands had Alec jeans unbuttoned and around his knees. As the fabric moved from over his crotch he breathed out, now with a little relief from the pressure. Although, his underwear wasn’t providing as much relief as he would have liked. The simple black boxers looked as though they were eager to leave Alec’s body with the amount of pushing and throbbing his dick was doing in an attempt to free itself from restraint.

“Magnus… I.” Alec breathed heavily as he spoke. “I’m not really…”

“Got it.” Magnus replied almost breathlessly and placing a hand on the bulge in Alec’s underwear, warranting a slight gasp from Alec. “Want me to lead the way?” Alec nodded as he bit lip at Magnus’ touch. “Let me know if anything is too much, okay?” Magnus said, dropping to his knees before Alec, looking up for the response. Alec nodded again alongside heavy breaths.

Magnus moved his hands up onto Alec’s waist and moved closer to Alec who could have sworn he could have felt Magnus’ warm breath through his underwear, which was untrue for only a second when Magnus, with the softest touch, put his mouth around the head of Alec’s dick over his underwear, now Alec knew he could feel Magnus’ breath and he could have sworn he felt the heat reverb through his body to elicit the throb that came the moment it met Magnus.

Everything felt otherworldly for Alec. Magnus traced the v-lines on his partner’s body with his fingers down the waistband where he hooked his fingers and slowly began to lower Alec’s underwear, bringing his dick down with them, teasing them for that one final moment with his warm breath until it was finally free. Alec could have sworn he heard the word ‘wow’ escape Magnus as he stared at Alec’s naked body. And now taking the opportunity, he freed himself completely of his jeans and underwear around his feet.

Alec head swam as Magnus inched his way towards his own impressive length. Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead as he took the head of Alec’s dick into his mouth, the warmth shooting through Alec’s body, causing him to almost shudder on his feet. The feeling of Magnus’ tongue on the underside of his shaft as he moved his head closer to the hilt was only adding to the pleasure that Alec was already feeling. He felt a hand cup the underside of his balls and begin massaging, another hand began stroking the length as Magnus’ head moved up and down.

One final audible moan escaped Alec as Magnus removed his hand from Alec’s balls and shaft, moving his head off of the shaft for air. Alec thought for a moment about speaking up before Magnus placed the head in front of him back into his mouth – his tongue eagerly exploring around. Little by little, Magnus edged his mouth further down the shaft. Two-thirds of the way down, Alec felt the tip hit the back of Magnus’ throat. Alec wasn’t sure Magnus would be capable to take the rest down his throat but by God, he certainly hoped he could – what he felt was pure ecstasy. One slow push from Magnus took the remainder of Alec’s length down his throat, eliciting the loudest moan yet and one that the neighbours would have definitely heard.

Alec was thankful that Magnus chose to stop when he did as he wasn’t sure he would have been able to last much longer. As Magnus stood back up, Alec stooped down a little to kiss him again just before he was urged to lie back on the bed.

Back on the sheets, Magnus gestured for him to move further back. Alec complied, pushing himself further back so he was partially propped up against the headboard that felt soft against his back. Magnus stood at the base at the base of the bed, fully naked and erect. The sight was perfect to Alec, causing his dick to begin to throb again. Magnus crawled on the bed up to Alec and placed himself on Alec’s lap, grinding back and forth on Alec’s groin.

“Please.” Alec breathed into Magnus’ mouth as they kissed and feeling the curve of Magnus’ mouth at the request.

“If you’re ready?” Magnus replied, in a sultry tone. Alec didn’t even reply, he only nodded, biting at Magnus’ lip drawing a small moan from Magnus.

As Magnus leant over, a little off of Alec’s lap, to one of the nightstands by the table, Alec ran his hands up and down Magnus’ side, savouring the touch of Magnus’ smooth skin. Magnus moved himself off Alec’s lap, a condom and bottle of lube now in hand. Wasting no time, he rolled the condom down Alec’s still throbbing erection, just begging to be inside of Magnus, and proceeded to pour a generous amount of lube over it, working it over with a hand. He assumed the position he was previously in, on Alec’s lap, only now with the dick behind him. Alec stared longingly at Magnus as he watched the man work the lube onto his own body.

Magnus took Alec’s dick into his hand as he moved it closer to his hole. Alec felt the pressure as Magnus lowered himself onto the tip of his dick. Magnus took a second to breathe as he lowered himself a little further down. Stardust flowed through Alec’s body as he felt the warmth of Magnus’ body slowly taking over him. Magnus moaned as he lowered himself to the halfway point, Alec had to force himself not to buck under the incredible feeling of being inside of Magnus. His view changed to Magnus’ stomach where his abs became more defined every time he exhaled, the sight of it drove Alec wild, causing to shift underneath Magnus who was now three quarters of the way down. With one final breath, Magnus lowered himself to the hilt of Alec’s dick – shooting the most intense feeling Alec had ever felt through his entire body and warranting an almost simultaneous moan out of the two of them.

The two both hoped that the bed would remain silent as Magnus began to move himself up and down on Alec’s length, moaning a little each time he went down from the sweet spot being hit. Alec’s breathing was heavy as he occasionally pushed his pelvis up, meeting Magnus’ body, his dick being hugged by the body of his partner.

As they continued, Alec slowly felt Magnus opening up on top of him, making the movement between the two of them more seamless. Alec now begun moving his hips more to meet Magnus more often creating raw, animalistic noises to spout out of the two of them. Magnus’ arms were now placed around Alec’s neck as he moved and the two of them were closer than ever, now connected at the mouth. As they kissed, Alec couldn’t help but moan into Magnus’ mouth as the pleasure built inside of him; he could feel himself getting closer to his climax. Feeling this, he couldn’t help moving one of his hands onto Magnus’ dick and begin stroking. He couldn’t believe how unbelievably warm it was under his touch, his hand moving faster than the thrusts of his hips.

“Magnus, I…” Speaking was difficult as eat time Magnus moved downwards Alec wanted to moan again. “I’m close.” As he breathed heavily, he moved his hand off Magnus’ dick and grabbed the sheets either side of him.

“Do it.” Magnus said, forcing himself down on Alec.

Alec felt his balls begin to stir as Magnus moved, he was getting closer to cumming and the tightness wasn’t helping. It wasn’t likely he would be able to hold out any longer. His breathing changed, became ragged. One hand clutched the sheets, the other moved onto Magnus’ back, pushing their chests together. Everything between Magnus and himself had culminated into this, one moment of perfection. The pleasure was too much as starlight filled his eyes as he closed them, he felt himself spasming underneath Magnus as he shot the first load out. The feeling became more intense for a few more seconds before dying down as he emptied himself into the condom, Magnus moaning on top of him. Alec came harder than he ever had before.

“Holy shit.” Alec said under his breath.

“Alexander.” Magnus said, breathless as he pulled himself off of Alec. Alec opened his eyes and met Magnus’, not realising that during his own euphoria, Magnus had come on his chest. “That was incredible.” The room was filled with the scent of sweat and their passion as the two of them sat in their respective positions, kissing one another slowly. To the displeasure Magnus moved off the bed. “Here.” Magnus passed Alec a clean hand towel and an empty waste bin. Alec promptly wiped himself down and disposed of the condom. “Now, that is what I was hoping would come of this weekend.”

Alec, too spent to properly reply, gave a half-hearted chuckle as he put his head back against the headboard and took a few deep breaths.

“Magnus. That- you were amazing.” His head was still coming around, the starlight leaving his vision.

“I aim to please.” He said, climbing back onto the bed and sidling up to Alec, who lifted his arm for Magnus to lay under. “And from your reaction, I’d say I did a good job.”

“Definitely.”

“Since it’s late, Alec. Care to stay the night?” Magnus said, placing his head down on Alec’s chest and sending a warm sensation from Alec’s chest to his head.

“I’d love to.” He replied, resting his head back.


	13. If You Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after Alec and Magnus' passionate night together begins, only, not the way the two of them expect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I might have have mentioned this before, but I have the majority of my next fic in a basic plan. (Like 12/13 chapters or so) but I do have important university assignments due soon. So, I'm not going to be able to start it any time soon.

Everything was warm. Alec could feel his eyes cracking open under the sunlight, but it was precisely that sunlight that was keeping them closed. The sheets forming the cocoon around him were some of, if not, the softest he had ever slept in and were a far cry from the ones back in his own room. Whatever it was about them, the sheets had cage-like properties that prevented him from leaving. Not that he was about to fight against that force any time soon. The mattress and pillow he was using felt like they were from another realm, nothing in his own could possibly have been as soft as they were.

What made everything better was the warm body that slept next to Alec. He looked over to see Magnus in a peaceful sleep next to him. At some point during the night Alec had had his arm around Magnus and they were closer than Alec had ever been to anyone before. As he lay there on his back, with a man who looked like a god next to him, memories of the night they had just spent together came flooding back into his mind.

After the first time they had sex, the two of them just lay under the covers for a while, before continuing on with their exploits until they were both completely spent and fell asleep in each other’s arms. The thoughts filled Alec’s chest with an unmistakably warm feeling in his chest. He placed a hand on his chest, over the feeling a rubbed a little as a smile drew over his face. As he looked back over at Magnus, he noticed that Magnus had rolled over and faced him with sleepy eyes.

“Good morning.” Magnus muttered, through a deep voice.

“Morning.”

“I hope you slept well.” Magnus started as he re-arranged his body under the sheets.

“Certainly beats my dorm room.” Alec said, lying down to Magnus’ level, leaving the two of them face to face. “And it was definitely an unforgettable experience.”

“Well, I’m glad that I got to be a part of that.” Magnus arched one eyebrow. “And I certainly have no complaints. I was rather impressed.”

“I think that-“ Alec’s sentence was interrupted by a crash against Magnus’ front door, making the two of them shoot up in bed. “What the hell was that?!”

“It didn’t sound like anyone knocking…” Magnus said hesitantly, getting out of bed and Alec following suit. Luckily the two of them had both found their underwear so any visitors wouldn’t be getting any unwanted surprises from the two of them. A second crash sounded against the door as Magnus cracked the bedroom door slightly to peer into the lounge before shooting back into the bedroom and locking the door in front of him. “I think someone is trying to break.” He said, widening his eyes. “It might be worth grabbing our clothes and going.”

Alec felt his stomach drop. He was in his underwear and potentially facing someone dangerous. And he hadn’t seen any entrances or exists other than the front door. But without wasting any time he promptly threw his shirt on over his head and grabbed his jeans. If there was someone breaking in, he wouldn’t have time to sit down to pull his jeans on.

“Where are we gonna go, though?” He asked Magnus, who was already full dressed, and buttoning up his shirt. Alec could feel that the sleep hadn’t worn off and he was still a little groggy.

“Fire escape, through the bathroom window.” Magnus walked passed him into the bathroom, with Alec following suit. Alec never noticed how large the singular window in the bathroom actually was the night before, having other things on his mind. As Magnus fiddled with the lock on the window, Alec took the time to sit himself on the side of the bath the pull his jeans and boots back on. Now fully dressed, with everything still in his jean pockets he looked over to Magnus who had managed to get the window open. “Come on! Let’s go.” Another crash sounded in the living room that sounded like the front door had been completely knocked in. “Guess I’m not getting my deposit back on this place, then.” Magnus sighed as he led Alec onto the balcony on the other side of the window.

“I know one of you is in here!” A voice called from inside of the apartment. “Val isn’t happy. And I’m here to sort his problem.”

Magnus stepped out of the window onto the balcony and pushed the window closed behind him. Alec’s head span as he looked down to the street. He tightened his grip on the bar on the side of the building.

“If you go somewhere then we’re gonna find you.” The voice said.

“Come on, Alec.” Urged Magnus.

Alec stepped slowly down the stairs, keeping hold of the banister the entire time he walked. Even as he heard the man inside of Magnus’ apartment yelling profanities and destroying the property. Magnus sighed behind him as he heard the crashes. Within a couple of minutes, the two of them had descended to the lowest part of the fire escape and hopped onto the ground.

“We should go.” Magnus said, taking Alec’s hand and running towards the parking garage and Magnus’ car.

\---

By the time they reached the car, Alec was visibly sweating, his breathing was ragged and his entire body was shaking under him. Magnus sighed an audible sigh of relief as his car started with the first turn of the key. “I’ve never been more thankful for this car than now.” He said before driving out of the garage and taking off down the first main street he could find. Once they had been driving for ten minutes and found themselves a little way out of the city, Alec found himself a little calmer.

“Who the hell was that?!” Alec said.

“I don’t have a clue.” Magnus replied, keeping his eyes firmly planted on the road ahead. “But, if I had to guess, I would say one of Valentine’s goons. And I haven’t had any dealings with him, so that tends to suggest that he’s after you.”

“And this is all just because I stood up to him?” Alec rested an arm on the side of the car and propped his head against it.

“Well. I can tell you that Valentine doesn’t like people getting in his way, although I couldn’t tell you what he was after by trying to get to Mari. Perhaps it would be worth talking to her to see whether she does actually know anything – even if she’s said that she didn’t. There may be something that she wasn’t saying initially.”

“I know. Part of me wants to tell her about this. But if you’re right, then I wouldn’t want to scare her by telling her this.” Alec sighed to himself. “What do I do, Magnus?” His head still in his hand, he looked over to Magnus. He noticed the two of them had just driven out of the city and were headed into the suburbs and subsequently, Magnus began to slow down.

“There’s a place I know, a little out of the city that I can take us to. For now, I think that getting out of the city for today would probably be the better idea since I’d be tempted to say that Valentine’s goon didn’t find us, so he would most likely go and report that back to his boss. And not being in the city might not be a bad thing. As for Mari, call her later and talk to her to see if she knows anything more than she told you.”

Alec turned his head away from Magnus. Part of him knew he was being a little selfish since the two of them had to run out of Magnus’ apartment and there was no way of telling how long it would be until it would be safe for him to return to his home.

“Magnus… I’m sorry about this. It’s all my fault.” Alec sounded exasperated as he placed his head back against the headrest.

“There’s no need to apologise to me, Alexander. There’s no way I can blame you for this. For one, you had no way that you could have known that any of this would have happened. And as for when you confronted Valentine… you only did what any good person would have done when you stepped in to stop him. If anything,” Magnus looked over to Alec for a moment, “your kind-hearted caused this. And I wouldn’t call that a bad thing.”

The words warmed Alec’s heart as they swam around his head. He thanked Magnus quietly as the two of them headed further away from the city. They were at the point where the city was greatly reduced in size to the point where they had to have been a good five miles away – so the positive thing was that Valentine wasn’t going to find them any time soon, especially with how dense the city was. Unless someone had seen the two of them leaving, then they would be okay for a little while.

\---

Both Alec and Magnus remained silent for the remainder of the drive. Partially because Alec didn’t particularly feel like talking anymore and partially because he never got to wake up properly. He contemplated just putting his head back and going back to sleep for a little while but decided to fight the urge, wanting to be fair to Magnus who was basically in the same position as him.

Trees approached the car on both sides of the street. Even though they were less than ten miles away from the city, it felt like a completely different world from the city itself. Even the air around the two of them felt as though it was changing. It seemed cleaner and easier for Alec to take into his lungs. The deep, lush greens that had seeped into the sides of the road were a far cry from the sickly colour palette of the Camarrah City Centre. Even the college campus paled in comparison, while there may have been patches of colour on campus it was nothing compared to what he was seeing.

Magnus slowed the car down as he took a turn onto a road that broke down into a dry dirt road.

“Where are we going?”

“Actually, we’re here.” Magnus said proudly, pulling around a row of trees to reveal a small log cabin, with a generator running calmly off to the side. “I know this might not be something you would be particularly into, into the forest like this. But it’ll do for tonight, at least. At least until we need to get back to campus tomorrow.”

Alec checked his phone. To a level of surprise, he still had a good reception, having watched a bunch of movies where teens end up in the forest, he was half expecting to be completely cut off from the world. Although, the sky line of Camarrah was still visible through the trees. It was obviously that they weren’t all that far away from the city, but they were still far enough away that Valentine wasn’t going to find the two of them and that Alec would still be able to call Mari.

“Before you feel the need to question, this place belongs to one of Travis’ friends.” Magnus said. “Or at least, one of their parents owns it and… well Travis’ friend has told me that I can use it if I need to.” He sighed. “And something tells me this is a ‘I need to’ kind of time. They told me that his parents were just here yesterday – that would probably explain why the generator there is still on. Let’s hope that they don’t realise that and come back.”

“I haven’t known you for long Magnus. But I’m beginning to learn that I probably don’t need to question these kinds of things.” He smiled. “I’m just glad to be away from the city.” Alec looked over his shoulder and back towards the city, rubbing the exposed part of his arm.

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Magnus said, placing a hand on Alec’s arm.

Magnus opened the door and flipped a switch to the very left of the front door. Alec followed him inside to see the illuminated log cabin. It looked almost like what he had expected from the movies. It was one single room that split off with two other doors, to the right, that led to the bedroom and the bathroom. To the left was the kitchen. It was small and modest and not much to look at, especially when less than a few hours ago, Alec was in Magnus’ grandiose apartment. As for the furniture, that too, was nothing special. For the most part, it looked like cheap, flat-pack furniture that had been out of the box for less than a few months.

As the door slid closed behind, Alec could hear a low hum of the generator outside. Alec heard Magnus sigh as he walked over to the kitchen and opened a few of the cabinets. From where he stood, Alec saw a few boxes over Magnus’ shoulder, so he knew that at least they wouldn’t be hungry.

\---

Something about making the phone call to Mari made Alec feel a little uneasy. He knew that bringing up Valentine to Mari wasn’t going to be on the forefront of her mind of things she wanted to talk about, but it was still something that he felt he needed to do. After he dialed, she picked up almost immediately.

“Hey Alec, what’s up?” She sounded a little tired. “I didn’t hear you come home last night all at, everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll tell you about it later. But I need to ask you something.”

“I’m not hiding the body. I’m not physically able to at this moment. Sorry.”

“What- no. This is serious. It’s about Valentine- Val. When he followed you and Clary. I know you might not really want to talk about it, but would you be able to tell me anything more about him? I know it’s a strange thing, but Magnus’ place got broken into this morning by one of Valentine’s goons and we had to leave out of the fire escape. We don’t know what he wanted, but is there anything you can tell us?”

“Okay, first of all. You stayed at Magnus’? Nice. And about Valentine? Uhh…” She sounded as she was searching the depths of her brain for the answers. “Clary told me that it had something to do with Sebastian. That he found out something about his father while Clary was with him, from the sounds of it, it was something less than legal. And what I’ve heard it from what Sebastian has told Clary is that Valentine has a habit of trying to ‘take care’ of the people that see things in his business that he doesn’t want them to. Or people that interfere in what he’s done.”

“He was trying to kill us?” Alec said, whispering down the phone, hoping he was out of earshot of Magnus.

“Maybe. I was half hoping that it wasn’t true, but you said someone broke in? Alec, you really need to tell someone about that. Someone who could do more than I could. Hell, I think you should even let Sebastian know about this since he doesn’t seem to be on good terms with his father. But where are you now? Are you safe?”

“I think so.” Alec took a moment to breath. “Magnus took us to a place a little outside of the city.” He was about to continue and say where specifically, but a paranoid part of him told him not to on the off chance that someone was listening that he didn’t want to hear. “It’s a place that one of Magnus’ friends owns. We’ll be fine for tonight, we’ve got supplies to make it for a few days if we really need. But I’ve got practice tomorrow evening, so I could tell Sebastian then – maybe he could help us in some way?”

“Yeah, definitely do that, Alec.” Alec heard a knock on a door on the other end of the phone. “Hey, I gotta go. But you’re gonna be okay, right? And you can call me if you need me.” It sounded as though she was sending a sympathetic smile down the phone as she spoke.

“I do, thank you, Mari. See you soon, bye.” Alec hung up the phone and turned to Magnus.

“All good?” He asked. 

Alec gave him the short version of his conversation and his plan to try and find Sebastian the next day and tell him about what Valentine attempted on the two of them that morning. Magnus had no obligations to trying to tell Sebastian, he agreed completely that that was a good course of action, especially since he knew what Sebastian was capable of, both on and off of campus.

\---

The day passed. Riddled with the two of them spending most of it just talking with one another, trying to keep their minds off the impending events and trying their best to avoid the topic of anything related to Valentine and the events of their morning. As night fell, they shared the only bed, but the whole place felt cold. Even with the door bolted shut and all windows closed tightly. Alec’s mind raced as the two held each other through the night. There was one thing that stayed on his mind, as soon as he heard any little noise, Alec immediately thought there was someone trying to break in. He knew that that was going to be something that played on his mind for a good while. And until his current problem was solved, it was something that was likely to not go away.

Having already known what time their classes were, neither Alec nor Magnus had any need to leave too early. Throughout the day, the thought of Valentine or one of his goons appearing plagued Alec’s mind, keeping him completely distracted throughout the entire day. Only the thought of his practice later was keeping Alec sane, with the hope that Sebastian might be able to help the two of them in some way.

Darkness took over the campus quicker than Alec had expected, but there was no reason for him to complain, the quicker things were over, the quicker he would be able to see Sebastian. As Alec walked into the sports hall again, he noticed that no one had actually turned up to practice. He made his way further into the hall to find Sebastian sat alone on a bench to the side of one of the entrances. He was sat fiddling with the string of a bow on his lap.

“Sebastian?” Alec started, warily. With no one else in the hall, at all, Alec was hesitant to try anything.

“Oh, Lightwood.” Sebastian said in an oddly chipper tone. “I’m glad you showed up.”

“Where are the others?” Alec looked around the hall, none of the regular equipment was set up. There was nothing set up for any of the other sports, either.

“I told them to skip this one, because apparently we need to have a talk.”

“Okay?” The feeling that Sebastian was about to yell at him immediately started to grow on Alec. But he wasn’t immediately backing down at the thought, considering he wanted to speak with Sebastian as it was.

“Yes.” Sebastian sighed to himself before standing up and moving over to Alec. “Word travels fast to me. By which I mean your friend, Mari, came to talk to me earlier today. She said that my father sent one of his goons after you?” He ran a hand through his hair. As Alec nodded, Sebastian sighed a second time. “She said that you and Magnus had to leave through his fire escape?”

“Yeah, he started to break the door down before we even did anything.” Sebastian put a hand to his forehead and placed more weight on one of his legs.

“Christ.” His voice sounded breathy. “I’ve got to get this sorted out.” He looked up at Alec. “You wouldn’t be willing to help me… say… take my father down? You know, try and get him away from being a thug? It’s a long shot, me asking you this, but I figure I may as well.”

“That’s actually something that me and Magnus were considering. I think we could. But what did you have in mind?”

“Well.” Sebastian’s tone never really changed from the one serious one he seemed to have. “He seems to run his little circus by having all of his underlings doing his dirty work for him. So I would be tempted to say that we would have to try and get all of his goons out from under him, until it’s only him left. And then hopefully the police would be able to come along and finish the job for us.”

“And you think that would work?”

“He’s just like any other gang leader, really… And you’ve got to think, how tough would he really be when he’s on his own and all of his backup bodies have gone? Especially when he would be against, presumably me, you and Magnus and then the police? I’m assuming that you and Magnus would be willing to help me with this.”

“I’ll have to talk to Magnus. But I just want to feel safe again, so I’m in.”

Alec did wonder about Magnus. Sebastian’s relationship with him seemed frosty, but if they were to come together against one common enemy, then he held some hope that Magnus would be willing to help.


	14. Hush Little Voices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Working with Sebastian, Alec and Magnus head towards their goal of taking down Valentine’s underlings to make themselves safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realise from the summary that it doesn't seem like a college AU, but I promise it is lmao. 
> 
> I also want to give a quick thank you to Shadowhunterfan8302 and Ello2jen, I see your comments on my chapters and I love seeing you engage with them the way you are. Especially since I see your comment on every chapter Shadowhunterfan ♥ they mean a lot from the both of you

The air was deceptively calm around Alec. After speaking with Sebastian about usurping his father’s goons from under, Alec was understandably nervous about talking to Magnus and asking him whether he would be willing to help the two of them take Sebastian’s father down.

Alec had already agreed to help Sebastian. He had done it without even thinking about what the consequences would have been. All he knew was that the singular act of one of Valentine Morgenstern’s goons breaking into Magnus’ apartment while he was in bed was enough. Add that in with Valentine himself following and threatening Mari, Alec didn’t want to wait around to see what the next action was going to be.

He knew that Valentine must have had a network of goons and underlings around the city and his beck and call, but for Alec, he was only a college student, as was Sebastian and Magnus. While they may have been in the year above him, he was still hesitant about what they were going to be able to do. The thing that struck him hardest was that he had barely been at school more than a month and he had already managed to get himself in an insurmountable level of trouble. He knew that college was usually the time that most people let loose and get into trouble. Although, the trouble that normal students got into would be more along the lines of being taken home by the police after getting drunk or trying drugs – and then proceeding to never touch them again. But to end up on the wrong end of a gang boss? That wasn’t exactly what Alec had in mind.

Still, Alec hadn’t been struck by entirely negatives. At college, he was able to be himself around his friends. So much so that he managed to find Magnus. Something told him that if Magnus did agree to help Sebastian and himself and they both made it out the other side, then they would be closer than ever. The two never explicitly had the talk about the status of their relationship, but during the night the two of them spent together, before Valentine’s goon broke in, Magnus told Alec.

“I’m glad to have you here. You’re the best kind of boyfriend a guy could ask for.” And it was something Alec never wanted to question, because it was specifically what he was hoping to hear.

\---

Magnus agreed to meet Alec as he sent Magnus a message saying:

‘Can we meet somewhere? I need to ask you something’

There was a part of Alec that made him immediately think that the way he worded his message came off more abrasive than he was hoping. That same part made him think that it may have put the thought in Magnus’ head that he was trying to break up with him, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Alec and Sebastian opted for a picnic table in front of the Anteres Building on campus while the two of them waited for Magnus to appear. They weren’t left waiting for long as Magnus appeared out of the Anteres Building. Alec couldn’t help noticing the stiff greeting that Magnus and Sebastian gave to one another, knowing that the two of them weren’t on the warmest of terms, Alec wasn’t entirely surprised. Alec was greeted in a far warmer way than Sebastian, with a quick kiss on the lips.

“Is everything alright, Alec? Your message seemed pretty serious.” Magnus said, sitting down across from Alec.

“Yeah, it’s just what I need to ask you?”

“Well I think it’s a little early for us to get married, Alexander, I propose we wait a little longer.” He smiled as he saw the smirk on Alec’s face. “And is there a reason Sebastian is here?”

“Yeah, he’s kind of a big part of this.” Alec took a deep breath. “It’s about Valentine. I wanna take him down Magnus. And Sebastian said he would help us.”

“Taking down the leader of a gang? Is that it? And I thought I was the one bringing the adventure in this relationship.”

“Are you with us or not?” Sebastian said. There was no room for joy in his voice.

“I… we would need to think about this, surely?” Magnus said, looking at Alec and taking one of his hands.

“I know how to do it.” Sebastian said. “I’ve told Alec about this already, but I’ll repeat it for you. He’s a gang leader. And what’s a big part of a gang? All the different members. So, we take down his two second in commands, then the lower downs should scatter and then he’ll be left pretty powerless.”

“Simple as that? Take down dangerous gang members? Did you already agree to this Alexander?”

“I said I would do it only if you would.” Alec said, rubbing the back of Magnus’ hand with his thumb. Magnus turned his head to face Sebastian.

“How are we meant to do this then?”

“You’ll do it?” Alec said, his facing lighting up. The prospect of the two of them finally ending up safe and away from Valentine filled him with hope.

“As long as it’s not too dangerous. I… I don’t want to lose you, Alec.”

“Moving on.” Sebastian promptly said, before Alec and Magnus could continue any further public displays of affection. “I know both of the people that we need to deal with. One of them is Hodge Starkweather, stupid name, I know. He is one of my father’s oldest friends and a keen fighter, so I would say he would be the more difficult of the two to take down. The other one calls himself Brother Jeremiah, I don’t know his real name and he can be a little strange at times.”

“Is he a religious man? Calling himself brother.” Magnus asked.

“I’m not entirely sure why he went with brother. But, I don’t think he’s entirely there – mentally. He’s extremely fearful of my father and what he might do, so I believe that’s why he sticks around.”

“When you say he’s not there, mentally? What do you mean?” Alec chimed in.

“Again. I’m not entirely sure. He’s been to a multitude of different hospitals and gotten a bunch of tests done. And no one has really figured out what’s entirely wrong with him. But people think there may be a little schizophrenia in there, he says he hears voices.” Sebastian sighed to himself. “He would be the easier one to take down out of the two.”  
“By ‘take down’, what do you mean by that, Sebastian?” Magnus. “I’m not about to do anything illegal.”

“We’re not going to do anything illegal.” Sebastian said, crossing his arms. “Especially when I’m wanting to police to take my father away. Because if we did something illegal, then we would get taken away, perhaps not right away, but eventually. And I don’t particularly want to have to deal with that. You want to get arrested? Go right ahead.”

“Alright.” Magnus raised in free hand in defeat. “Let’s do it… It’s going to be the only way to deal with our problem, I’m guessing. Where do we start?”

“We’ll have to make our way into the city. I presume you can drive us there, Magnus?” Sebastian asked.

\---

Alec was a little hesitant getting into Magnus’ car, even with his boyfriend there. A part of him thought that someone who have done something to the car, perhaps cutting the break lines or messing with the engine, so it would explode the moment the car switched on.

With Sebastian giving Magnus directions to a part of the city that he had never been to, he led the two of them, from the back seat, through a few of the areas that Alec recognised to the place that had more office buildings that anything else. He pointed Magnus towards a multi-story parking lot for them to park in nearby where they needed to go.

Sebastian led the two of them towards what looked like a run-down office building. As they walked into the lobby Alec looked around the room, the place was completely empty, despite the fact that a light flickered on a small red button by an elevator on the far side of the room. All four walls were the exact same shade of grey, they weren’t too dissimilar from the shade of the floor tiles which sat as a light shade of black, with every few tiles being loose from the floor and revealing the bare concrete underneath. A small reception desk sat on the left-hand side of the room, against the wall, with an obsolete computer monitor and telephone with their innards exposed, as if some kind of mechanical scavenger had come and picked through them.

“So, why here, Sebastian?” Magnus asked, looking over at a plant pot filled with old soil and dead plant, as they stopped before the elevator. He rubbed his hands together while he contemplated touching the plant.

“Brother Jeremiah, the one who isn’t entirely there,” Sebastian sighed, “lives here.”

“Here?!” Alec’s face scrunched. “How does he live here? How would anyone live here?” He looked over to Magnus whose focus remained on the dead plant. “Surely it couldn’t be healthy.”

“It’s not.” Sebastian said, pressing the elevator button. “My father bought this building to prevent it from being demolished, so he got it really cheap. Then he told his goons that they could use this place as a base of operations, but he didn’t want to shell out any more money to fix anything so the whole place is a health hazard.”

“Is that what caused him to be like he is?” Magnus asked, removing himself from the plant.

“No. He was exiled from, call it a cult, call it a society, he was exiled from a group that call themselves ‘The Silent Brothers’ and that messed him up pretty hard. Then because of that he moved in here and shut himself off from most forms of contact – he barely sees anyone anymore.”

“Then why do people listen to him?” Magnus asked.

“He might be a little crazy but apparently he’s brilliant. He apparently comes up with crazy plots that do Valentine and his gang a load of good.”

“Might I ask why we’re going after him, then? Shouldn’t we, I don’t know, prepare a little?” Magnus’ voice wavered with uncertainty, rubbing a hand up and down his arm. “I can’t be the only one thinking that this is all a little dangerous.”

“Don’t worry, Magnus.” The elevator dinged and the door opened in front of the three. Sebastian promptly stepped inside. “The building is more dangerous than Brother Jeremiah is.” He urged Alec and Magnus inside. And they followed, almost blindly. 

The doors made a dragging sound as they closed behind Magnus, the last one to step in. Sebastian reached over to his left and pressed the button for the highest floor, the light behind the button made a feeble attempt at lighting before giving in. Out of the corner of his eye, Alec caught which button Sebastian pressed and felt his insides drop. It would be the top floor, wouldn’t it? He thought to himself.

A few sudden, clunking sounds rang through the elevator before it jerked twice and started moving. Alec moved closer to the side of the elevator and grabbed onto the hand rail – the cold metal shooting the cool feeling through his body. He felt himself slowly getting colder as the elevator moved. He looked up, out of an open hatch in the ceiling to see each of the door frames approaching as they moved. As they rose, the elevator made continuous sounds of pain as it moved, as though the fire moved through its joints while it climbed.

Magnus moved a step closer to Alec and linked his fingers through Alec’s free hand, holding the two of them in place. Alec closed his eyes for a moment as he breathed slowly. He wanted to say something to Magnus. He wanted to thank him for coming with him. Just knowing that Magnus had agreed to come with them made the world of difference to Alec. Magnus seemed to have a magical aura to Alec that made things seems easier. Before he could speak, however, the elevator jarred to a halt and Alec’s grip on the rail tightened immensely. With a few seconds of silence, that could have lasted any amount of time to Alec, the door dragged itself open revealing a derelict hallway, submerged in darkness with sunlight fighting its way through a set of old, colourless blinds.

A sound of disappointment escaped Sebastian as he pushed passed Alec and Magnus and into the hallway. He turned around and shifted his eyes between the two still in the elevator.

“Well. Come on then! The elevator isn’t about to go any higher.” Sebastian said with his arms folded.

“This place is hideous.” Magnus said as he stepped out, with Alec following suit. 

Dust clung to every single surface possible, even the wallpaper that was unfurling from the walls and collecting on the ground. Amongst all of the dusk, there was a distinct faded brown colour that served as a multitude of stains along the walls and floors. Most of the doorways were barricaded up with now rotting wood, leaving only one or two of them open. As the group passed the first of the two open doors, Alec saw that the room looked as though it had all of the furniture from the entire building crammed into its space. With the exception of the doorway itself, there was no room to even walk into the room.

The second open room, however, was practically empty, with only a broken table and a few chair legs scattered across the floor.

“Where are we meant to go then?” Magnus questioned. “It seems like every passage is blocked off and out of the only two open ones, neither of them seem to lead anywhere.  
“Which is precisely the point.” Sebastian said, moving towards the back of the room, towards a wide sheet of thin wood that he easily pulled down, showering Alec and Magnus with dust and leaving Alec to turn around completely in a panic for air.

“You could have warned us you were about to do that.” Magnus sighed, plucking bits of from his hair and jacket.

Alec turned back around to see a hole in the wall where the sheet wood was. What got him the most was that it was clean, spotless almost, with a few specks of dust that floated through. A warm yellow glow flooded through the hole that spilled out into the rest of the room, highlighting just how dusty the place was.

“Through here. Jeremiah won’t be far.” Sebastian ordered, ducking through the hole.

Magnus went through next, groaning as he ducked, making sure that he didn’t get any additional dust on his person. Once on the other side, he held a hand out for Alec to take. Seeing his boyfriend through the other side cemented his decision. As he walked, he wavered only slightly as a floor board made a similar creaking sound to one the elevator had previously made. He took Magnus’ hand, that felt immeasurably stable as he ducked under. Standing back up on the other side, he was greeting by Magnus’ warm smile and quite the opposite from Sebastian.

“Come on.” Sebastian ordered again. “I haven’t heard anyone other than us, yet. And I would prefer it all to stay this way.

As Sebastian moved further away from the couple. Magnus let go of Alec, letting him see the new room they were in. It looked to be a foyer to an unused office. The whole in the wall came out behind a completely empty desk. And much like the floor he had previously seen, it looked strangely clean – as did the rest of the room. It expanded out into an unremarkable looking waiting room, with a yellow coffee table and plain leather sofas that looked a little worse for wear down the right-hand side and a staircase leading up to the next floor on the left.

The source of the yellow glow was revealed as Alec turned his attention back to the desk. A desk light, with a bulb far too large for it jammed in, teetered on the edge, blasting its light towards the hole. Where it seemed far softer on the other side of the hole, it was far more intense and borderline unbearable to the point that Magnus turned the light around so it flooded the rest of the room. Illuminating the floor and a barred door on the far side. The floor was a similar style of tiles in the lobby of the building and the walls were a faded red.

“Up the stairs?” Alec asked, knowing full well that that was where they needed to go. Neither Magnus nor Sebastian said anything in response. But Sebastian made a humming sound and nodded as he took the first few steps.

Alec and Magnus followed moments after. Wincing each time the metal steps creaked underneath them. Atop the staircase led to another doorway that Sebastian didn’t wait by before walking into, which made Alec think that he must have been into the building before. If he wasn’t hesitating, either he knew his way around, or he was plotting something. Alec’s focus changed to Magnus as the two of them reached to top and entered the room. He wondered whether Magnus knew that this was the kind of thing that he was doing to be getting into by getting into a relationship with himself. Although, Alec wasn’t exactly expecting this to happen himself and he desperately hoped that blindly following Sebastian was going to solve his issue. Or at least keep Clary and Mari safe.

A similar yellow glow, that came from the desk lamp, seeped through a crack in a door on the opposite end of the room the group just walked into. Alec looked around the entire room before settling back on the door, he noticed that the room was entirely empty and he could hear a muffled voice coming from the other side of the door.

“Brother Jeremiah, he’s just through there.” Sebastian spoke quietly as he turned to face Alec and Magnus.

“Alright. Anything we should know, last minute.” Magnus said as Alec balled his hands into fists.

“Be wary.” Sebastian settle on. “Jeremiah may not be reasonable. It would be worth keeping an eye out for anything dangerous around the room.” Alec refrained from audibly sighing, with his mind going to the thought of one of them potentially getting injured. “He’s also very jumpy – scares easily. That’s probably our main advantage.”

Alec tore his focus away from Sebastian and towards the door. The voice became suddenly more pronounced.

“Hush little voices! That isn’t going to help.” The voice sounded old, but footsteps moved at an incredible pace. They were light, almost as if the person was floating. “We need one final thing… and then the process will be complete. We’ll all be free!”


	15. Synchronized

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alec, Magnus and Sebastian face off against Brother Jeremiah before heading off to their next target.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out this fic hit more than 4,000 hits on the last chapter, which is far bigger than I thought it would ever hit, so thank you to anyone who's read any of it. Also, this fic finishes at 18 chapters, so we're in the home stretch.

“Are the two of you ready?” Sebastian asked quietly, without turning around. “If you’re not, it might not end well for you.”

Both Alec and Magnus readied themselves, informing Sebastian of the same.

“Very well.” Sebastian strode forward towards the door with little regard for the amount of noise he was making. In one smooth move, he lifted his leg and colliding with the door, knocking it completely over, as though it would have fallen if you breathed on it. A yelping sound came from inside the moment the door hit the floor.

The man inside the room was nothing like Alec expected. He looked like a spectre. Draped in a flowing grey robe, the man was completely bald with a surprisingly wrinkle-free face. It was, however, covered in was looked to be surgical scars. What little flesh that was exposed to the single lightbulb, that held on for dear life from the ceiling, was pale, sickly looking and clung to the bone. Brother Jeremiah looked as though he could have been from another world.

“Who? Who wants to disturb me?” He questioned, rocking back and forth, in a defensive stance, without looking at any of them. “I have to work,” he said, turning away from the three students and returned to a station of flasks joined by clear pipes that had liquids travelling between them. “I have to keep working. I have to keep working.” He moved from one station to one on the other side of the room that looked similar. “I have to keep working. If I don’t, then the Big Man will bring the Scary Man.”

“This guy is powerful?” Alec whispered to Magnus. “He looks like more of a danger to himself than to us.” Magnus nodded, not wanting to create any additional noise.

“No. No good!” Jeremiah cried, picking up a vial filled with a clear liquid and promptly threw it against the wall close to Magnus, shattering it and leaving a sizzling sound. “The Big Man will bring the Scary Man! No good.” Jeremiah moved back to the left-hand station and pulled another flask out of a drawer. Even as his voice became panicked, it still managed to remain smooth, it was the kind of sound that managed to worm its way into your mind.

Now I see it. Alec thought.

“What do we do here, Sebastian?” Magnus asked warily, stepping away from the sizzling.

“My father likes to keep him busy. We need to destroy these stations.” Sebastian replied stepping forward to the station Jeremiah wasn’t at. Without a second thought, he pulled the mass of tubes and flasks down towards him, sending glass smashing onto the floor and causing Jeremiah to yelp again.

“I have to keep working.” Jeremiah said, twisting his body around toward Sebastian. “No good! It’s no longer all synchronized. You have ruined my work.” His voice cracked and his movement slowed. Sebastian completely ignored him and moved to the other station and pulled it down, like the first. All the while, Alec and Magnus remained static in place. Watching. “The Big Man – Valentine. He won’t be happy.” This seemed like the first time that Jeremiah truly acknowledged any of them.

“That’s the point.” Sebastian said.

“But… but the Big Man?” Jeremiah’s words slowed. “The Scary Man.” Jeremiah moved over to the far-left corner of the room, where a pile of blankets lay.

“Something tells me that that isn’t a normal response for a person to have.” Magnus said, breaking the silence.

“Stop his work, he shuts down.” Sebastian said, without turning around. Jeremiah moved slowly, until he was sitting on the blankets with his back turned. “Just so you know, his body is ruined. And we will probably have a few days before anyone else comes here to check on him. So that’s how long we’ve got to finish this all.” He turned around. “Providing you two are actually going to help next time,” he walked towards the door he previously kicked down, “I’ll meet the two of you in front of the Anteres building tomorrow at ten, and we can take down Starkweather.” Giving no time for the others to respond, he walked away, leaving Alec and Magnus stirring with confusion.

“I suppose we should head out after him.” Magnus said, in a flat tone.

“Yeah…”

\---

Alec found the elevator just as bad the second time around, although he found it a little more comforting that there was only Magnus and himself left. But what he was more thankful for was to get out, back into the daylight and away from the dust cloud that was the office building.

“So, that was far easier than I was expecting it to be.” Magnus said as he began to drive.

“I know.” Alec sighed. “But Sebastian did say that Jeremiah would be the easier of the two.”

“And now it’s just Hodge Starkweather, we need to take down.” Alec hated the phrase ‘take down’. It made it seem like they were in some kind of gang war. While it was true they were in a conflict, he hadn’t anticipated he would be putting himself in danger the way he was.

“Do you know anything about him?” Alec asked, draping one arm out of the car.

“Very little.” Magnus sighed. “I can tell you that he’s meant to be a very skilled fighter. Which I’m thinking is probably why Sebastian wanted to go see Jeremiah first. Hodge Starkweather is clearly the more dangerous of the two.”

“Great.” Alec sighed, slumping down in his seat. “Are we meant to beat him up or something?”

“If we are, it would at least be three against one. And who knows, perhaps under that cold, bitter exterior, Sebastian might be a good fighter. Then we can just let him do all the work – again. Which is something I certainly wouldn’t have a problem with.” 

Alec didn’t respond immediately, he moved his head so he could see behind him in the wing mirror. The view of the run-down part of town was beginning to shrink in the background. The thought of where Sebastian had gone played on his mind, especially since he came with Magnus and himself. He then switched to Brother Jeremiah. About what Jeremiah was doing in the building, what he was making in those flasks and what he could be doing with Valentine. The one main thing that overruled everything was what he was going to do since his set-ups were destroyed. From where Alec stood, it seemed like those were the things that were keeping him occupied, and since he had nothing more to occupy him, what was he going to do once he got out of the corner he sat himself down in.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Alec asked, without moving.

“Who? Jeremiah?” Magnus turned a corner, altering the view in the mirror. “I couldn’t tell you. Not knowing much about a person doesn’t particularly help in figuring out how they’ll react in a situation... If he acts the way Sebastian suggested, I’m thinking that he might end up leaving, wandering the streets. Perhaps people will think he’s just another unfortunate homeless person.”

“You saw his skin, didn’t you?” Alec sat back up. “I think someone is more likely to call an ambulance for him.”

“And if they do, then he will most likely be hospitalised.” Magnus sighed. “I rather think it to be unlikely that Valentine or his goons would follow someone from hospital, especially in Jeremiah’s condition. I’m surprised they follow him at all, truth be told.”

It passed through Alec’s mind that it was more so the case that Jeremiah made weapons for Valentine as opposed to being a ‘second-in-command’ type. It was probably the case that Hodge Starkweather was the only second in command and Jeremiah would have been the weapons expert. Or at least a supplier.

“It wouldn’t be a bad thing, if Jeremiah got hospitalised, would it?” Alec said.

“How so?”

“Clearly his mind wasn’t all there. If he was in a hospital, then at least someone would be helping him. And not just using him like Valentine had to have been.” Magnus took a moment before responding.

“I suppose you’re right. If Sebastian is right, then someone should find Jeremiah in time. Things will sort themselves out with him.”

Alec and Magnus continued driving for a little while longer before the city scape they recognised came back into view.

“What are we meant to do about Sebastian?” Magnus asked. “He was the one who said that we would only have a few days to take Starkweather down once we dealt with Jeremiah. So, I cannot help but wonder what his plan is now we’re in that supposed window of time.”

“I don’t know.” Alec said with a flat tone. “I wouldn’t even know where to start looking to find Hodge.”

“I know where he lives, while he’s in school, at least. I don’t think he would particularly be too pleased if we just turned up on his doorstep, however.”

“If it comes to it, then I don’t care.”

\---

The wind came in blustery shots as Alec and Magnus pulled back into the parking lot of the college campus and the sky was slowly turning darker as rain clouds took over. Magnus made the conscious decision to put the roof up on his car, to his own disappointment.

Alec sighed as he stepped out of the car. Neither he nor Magnus had no clue about what their next step was. Sebastian was nowhere to be seen and they knew nothing about Hodge Starkweather. There was always the option of blindly driving around the city centre again in hopes they might run into someone who would be able to give them some semblance of direction. Alec turned slowly on his heels, scanning the campus. The place was eerily empty, even the parking lot was mysteriously devoid of traffic, and considering school was still on, there should have at least been one or two people around. Alec finally stopped facing the Anteres building.

Magnus walked up behind Alec and wrapped his arms around Alec’s waist. A rush of warmth fired through his body as he moved one of his own hands over Magnus’ linked hands.

“What are you thinking about, Alec? We haven’t had the chance to stop and talk all day. Just us.”

“I know this has practically just started, but I want it to be over.” Alec dropped his head back so it was resting on the top of Magnus’. “I didn’t think this was the kind of thing I would be getting myself into when I came to college, Magnus.” He pulled himself away from Magnus and turned to face his, taking Magnus’ hands in his own. “I didn’t really think that my life would be in danger.” He pulled Magnus into a hug. “Hell, even going to that winter dance sounds good right about now.” Magnus felt warm against his body – providing the same comfort as their first night together, he felt his eyes well up as he squeezed Magnus.

“And to think, it was your kind-heartedness that got you into this.”

“And you.” Alec said, with a low tone.

“Not at all. You asked me if I would help, I had the option to say ‘no’. I wanted to help you. I still do.” Magnus linked his arms around Alec’s back. “And no matter how dangerous this might be, I’m not about to leave you alone in this. So, when it comes to Starkweather, or Valentine… if we have to fight, then we’ll fight.”

“That’s the thing.” Alec sighed. “I’ve never even been in a fight.”

“Unless you’re counting as a child, then neither have I. We’re in the same boat there.” Magnus and Alec pulled apart from one another. “I know that Sebastian certainly has, if that gives you any relief. He was quite the troublemaker last year.”

“One of three of us, I guess? And I don’t suppose that my few weeks of archery is going to help.”

“You never know.” Magnus shrugged. “There might just be a bow when we get there. But,” Magnus placed a hand under Alec’s chin and brought it down to his level before bringing their lips together, firing a tingling sensation through Alec’s body. “Since you mentioned it, would you be interested in going to the winter dance with me?” Alec was taken aback. It wasn’t exactly something he was expecting to hear about, especially not around everything else that was going on in his life. “Especially since I should really be helping plan it. I’d like you to come and see what I managed to pull out.”

“I think,” a smile drew over Alec’s face, “I’d love that.” It wasn’t the answer he was expecting to give. He hadn’t even planned on going in the first place. But the prospect of going, amidst the hell he was most likely about to wade through, was a positive light he was eager to take hold of. “I probably should tell you that I don’t really own any,” he gestured his hands in a confusing motion, “fancy clothes. So, it might not be a good idea to make a high-end dress code or anything.”

“I’ll do my best.” Magnus smiled, his face crinkled as he did. “But I’m certainly not promising anything. Perhaps I’ll just have to put those grandiose ideas elsewhere.”

If even for a little while, Alec completely forgot about the things he was getting into and was thinking of nothing more than Magnus. There was no way to measure just how, incredibly, happy that Magnus was making Alec. There was just an undeniable warmth that Alec felt anytime he was with Magnus, the two of them didn’t even need to be doing anything, just being in his company was good enough for him. Magnus was enough to force Alec to become more outgoing than he ever would have been before. And that was a change that Alec was happy to accommodate.

\---

The two moved inside of the Anteres building as rain began to fall. Water bounced off of the floor as the two of them took their place on one of the sofas in the main entrance. Next to one another they watched the rain fall and listened to the sound through the windows. Mixing the sound of the rain with the gentle chatter of the people working in the office of the building, a soft wave enveloped the building. Alec was happy. The place he was, was the exact kind of place he wanted to be in the future.

“There you are.” Sebastian’s voice cut through the air. As soon as the sound hit Alec’s ears, he sank a little.

His feeling was bittersweet. He knew he had to see Sebastian again, but there was a part that was eating away at him that didn’t particularly want to see him, because it meant that he was going to head into something dangerous. At the same time, however, it meant that he and Magnus were one step closer to everything being over.

“I wondered where the two of you might have gotten to.” His tone remained smug as he spoke.

“Perhaps if you hadn’t abandoned us,” Magnus started, without turning around. “Then you wouldn’t have had to.”

“I will concede that I left the two of you with Jeremiah. But I had somewhere to be. Somewhere that should prove helpful in finding out where Starkweather is.”

“Oh?”

“One of the gyms in the city. He’s there a lot.” Sebastian planted himself before Magnus and Alec and crossed his arms. “We can head over there. Preferably sooner rather than later and then we can be done with both of them in one day.”

“Does this really sound like we have a choice, Alec?” Magnus said, looking over to Alec with a smirk.

“Just get up.” Sebastian sighed, before Alec had the chance to speak. “Same arrangement as last time, Magnus, you drive and I’ll tell you where to go.”

The sinking feeling inside of Alec didn’t alleviate knowing that Sebastian was right. And there was a part of him that did agree with Sebastian. He did want it to all be over, he just didn’t anticipate that he might have to face Hodge Starkweather mere hours after he faced Brother Jeremiah.

He sighed as he pushed himself off of Magnus.

“We might as well.” He said, full of exasperation. “If we go now, and he is there. We’ll have taken a massive chunk out of this in one day.” His eyes met Magnus’, instantly softening Magnus’ face.

“I suppose we should go, then.” Magnus said, pushing himself up and sighing. He was just as tired as Alec was. “You don’t suppose that we could wait until the rain stops, though? I’d like to try and keep the rain off my clothes, I’m rather attached to this outfit.”


	16. Mixed Up World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After facing off against Brother Jeremiah, the group finds their way in Hodge Starkweather to take him down as well, placing Alec directly in the firing line.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I did a full 8-hour shift today and I feel as though I achieved nothing. But on the plus side (ish). There's only two (2) chapters left after this one. We're almost at the finish line!!

To his behest, Magnus’ request to wait until the rain passed was not granted. Sebastian was far too stubborn to let the two of them sit around and wait for clear skies when, in his words, ‘Starkweather could catch wind of what we’re doing and go off the grid’.

The three of them were in a familiar position to where they were in earlier in the morning. Magnus driving them towards the city centre with Sebastian back seat driving him the entire time. And the whole time, Alec remained in silence, staring out of the window, wondering what literally any other regular college student would have been doing with their time. Most likely not getting involved in potentially illegal activities.

Sebastian had told Magnus and himself that Hodge Starkweather was most likely in one of the gyms in the city. Alec had seen a couple of different gyms from the few times he had made it into the city, but he never considered that he would have to be going into any of them to start some kind of fight. There was a distinct part of Alec that made him thought that there was the chance he and Magnus were going to get kicked out and banned of a gym that they didn’t even have any plan on joining.

“So, Sebastian.” Magnus began. “This gym that Starkweather is meant to be at. Any idea what it’s like? It’s not going to be one of these grotty, sweaty little corner places, is it?”

“It’s another spot my father has taken me to before. From what I remember, it wasn’t really anything special. I remember they had a boxing ring, though. Other than that, there wasn’t particularly anything special about it. It’s just a regular gym, as far as I’m aware.”

“A regular gym with gang members in it?” Alec finally spoke up. “Gang members that I don’t even know what they do.”

“They’re not exactly that big a gang.” Sebastian said. “And my father tried to keep it hidden from me. But they distribute drugs, quite often to the kids who go to our college.”

“They’re not doing well, karma-wise, I guess.” Magnus said, with a smirk.

“I suppose.” Sebastian sighed.

“If they’re pushing drugs on college kids, then how on earth have the police or any other authorities not caught onto what they’re doing yet?”

“Oh, they have.” Sebastian sat back in his seat. “They’ve stopped a few of the lower down people. The kinds of people that actually move the drugs. But, like Jeremiah, the rest of them are just that scared of my father, they would never rat him out. They’d rather be in prison than face whatever he would do to them if they did. And he’d at least look at them favourably if they ever got out of prison for not ratting him out.” He sighed to himself. “That’s why we’re going after the higher ups. Because the police have caught wind of some of the lower downs recently and as far as I know, they’re running a little scared, trying to stay off the grid.”

“Silver linings, eh?” Magnus said, looking over to Alec, dragging a smirk onto Alec’s face.

“Trust me, it’s a good thing. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of the lower down goons and they’re not as civil as Jeremiah or Starkweather. All of this came at a really good time for us.”

“What? You mean at college?” Alec started. “Where we shouldn’t really have to be worried about the threat of imminent death?”

“You’re meant to learn at college, don’t you?” Sebastian sighed. “This is just teaching- turn left here- teaching you how to deal with this kind of situation.”

“A situation where I make someone’s violent, gang boss, father angry with me and want to kill me just because I stop him doing what? Kidnapping a random college girl – that he was going to do, who knows what with.”

“Look.” Sebastian sounded defeated. “I don’t know how this all happened but it did. So, let’s just do this because the gym is literally just down on the left here.” He pointed to a white building at the bottom of the street. “We don’t know how this is going to go, so it’s probably worth parking somewhere where we can make a quick escape.”

“They’re not going to damage my car, are they?” Magnus asked, pulling the car up into a free parallel spot nearby.

“Not if we do this right.” Sebastian said, moving to leave the car.

\---

Sebastian led Alec and Magnus into the gym, much like the office building, they automatically assumed that he knew his way around the place – or at least had some idea.

As they stepped into the building, Alec had no idea what they were expecting. The place didn’t look particularly extraordinary, it was just a gym. The reception area was a clean white colour with a few red sofas sat in one corner, with a few motivational posters along the walls. An unmanned desk stood in the centre of the back wall with a set of doors either side that looked to lead into the main gym floor. Faint, pumping dance music played, presumably for the people working out that could be seen through the door on the right.

“Neither of you are planning on joining this gym, are you?” Sebastian asked, warranting nothing more than a snort from Magnus and silence from Alec. “Fair enough then.” He led the two of them forwards through the left-hand set of doors.

The door opened into a hallway with signs pointing towards both locker rooms. Sebastian led them swiftly through the left-hand locker room and out the other side. They were hit with a mix of steam and sweat as they travelled through and to other side. The locker room opened up to a large room with a boxing ring in the far corner, inhabited by two people throwing violent punches at one another.

A boxing ring in the far side of the room wouldn’t have been Alec’s first choice in location for the ring. Especially considering that the remainder of the room was devoid of almost everything else, with the exception of a few loose lockers and worn wooden benches scattered around the edge of the room, with a few sandbags and punching bags in the open area. A group of people crowded around the boxing ring, cheering each time one person landed a punch on the other. Even from where Alec and Magnus stood, they could see the sweat fly off the men’s bodies as they hit one another.

“There. The shorter one in the ring.” Sebastian said in a low tone. 

Sebastian referred to one of the men within the boxing ring. His hair was a mess of dirty blond along with a short beard of the same colour. Sweat poured down his face and toned body as he squared up to a taller man. He wore nothing but a pair of blue shorts and faded red boxing gloves and had a slightly wrinkled face from a good few years of wear and work. And amidst the sweat and wrinkles was a constant look of aggression, there was no way he was about to let his opponent win the fight. As Magnus opened his mouth to speak, Hodge threw one final punch directly into the face of his opponent, knocking him onto his back and causing an eruption of cheers from the audience before him. He threw both arms up above his head and let out a noise that sounded almost like a dog snarling.

“And one of us has to take him down?” Magnus finally got around to saying, once the sound of the crowd died down.

Alec wanted to reply, but he simply had no idea what to even say. But their silence was short lived as he found himself making direct eye contact with Hodge from where he stood. His eyes looked less than human, discoloured and full of stored rage.

“Well, well, well.” Hodge dropped himself out of the ring and began to walk to the three. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it Sebastian? Tell me, how’s your dad?” He was dangling his boxing gloves down by his side.

“Surely that’s something that I should be asking you, considering you’re his lackey.” Sebastian met Hodge’s gaze as he stopped a few meters from them. Alec could see that Sebastian’s words clearly hit a nerve with Hodge as his face tightened a little.

“So, what are you doing here?” Hodge asked, glaring at Alec again. “I didn’t think you were the athletic type.”

“Things change.” Sebastian shrugged.

“Prove it.” He said, holding up his boxing gloves.

“I’m not really one for contact sports.”

“I wasn’t talking to you – I meant your tall friend here.” Hodge’s eyes turned from Sebastian back to Alec.

“Wha- why me?”

“Because you’re the Lightwood boy, aren’t you? And Valentine said he wanted someone to rough you up a little bit.” He crossed his arms again. “I haven’t seen him this upset with anyone in a long time, so you musta done something really bad to piss him off the way you did.”

Alec knew exactly what Hodge was talking about, but he didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing how visibly uncomfortable he was actually feeling. He wasn’t one for fighting, he had never been in a physical fight. He always thought he would have been able to hold his own if he had ever managed to get himself into one, but he assumed it would have just been with some shmuck on the street, not someone who was clearly well-trained and on their own home turf. Part of him wanted to run away and never come back – avoid his problems and never have to deal with them again. But then that would mean leaving Magnus, something he had no intention of doing. He knew what he had to do, he needed to step up. Even if he didn’t win the fight, Sebastian and Magnus, or Magnus at least, would be there to back him up.

“What you want to do then, Lightwood? Gonna run?”

A hand reached out and touched the back of Alec’s arm.

“You don’t have to do this, Alec.” Magnus whispered to him, quiet enough so that Hodge couldn’t hear him. As much as Alec wanted to believe him, an overwhelming urge inside of him that pushed him to the answer he was going for. He knew he didn’t have to. But then Valentine wouldn’t be stopped if he didn’t.

“I’m sorry, Magnus.” Alec whispered back. The two shared a silence before Magnus sighed.

“Alright, just be careful. I don’t want that pretty face of yours ruined.” Alec didn’t look back but he could tell Magnus had a smug look on his face.

“Let’s go.” Alec said, in his mind he sounded intimidating, but there was no way that he could have possibly sounded that way.

“Good choice.” Hodge said, stepping backwards. “Get this boy a pair of gloves.” He turned back briefly. “You might want to change, as well. I can’t imagine fighting in those jeans would allow for much mobility.” He said, referring to Alec’s skinny jeans.

\---

After moving briefly back into the locker room, Magnus procured Alec a pair of smooth, black gym shorts, with a white trim around the edge. And now, sat in one of the corners of the ring, he didn’t have a clue how he had managed to get into the situation. He was now sat, shirtless in a gym and a pair of shorts he didn’t own, ready to box someone who could potentially kill him if he didn’t stop. Alec didn’t know the rules of boxing, and he was hoping that they weren’t going to play by any specific set of rules.

Sebastian distanced himself from Alec and Magnus by seating himself on one of the benches around the side of the room. Magnus took up position to the side of Alec, but just outside of the ring. Alec sat in one corner, facing Hodge with Magnus gently rubbing his back. He didn’t know whether that was some kind of technique that Magnus knew or whether he was just doing it for the sake of doing it, but it helped him stop bouncing one of his legs and his arms shaking.

“How did any of this happen?” Alec asked, trying to fill the silence on his side of the ring. What remained of the crowd had huddled around Hodge’s corner.

“Who knows.” Magnus said grimly. “But, I believe in you, Alexander. And if you need to… don’t be afraid to fight dirty.” Alec twisted his head to look down at Magnus. “What?” He shrugged. “Isn’t this about taking him down? I’m sure this isn’t an officially sanctioned match by any stretch. And there doesn’t look to be any kind of referee, so who’s going to stop you?” Alec turned back around.

“Fair point.” Alec said, with only moments to spare before Hodge got to his feet, stumbling slightly on one leg and raising a glove to Alec.

“Let’s do this, Lightwood.” Hodge’s voice sounded sharp, more pointed than it did when he spoke before.

“Go get ‘em, tiger.” Magnus whispered as Alec stood up.

\---

The world seemed to shift around Alec and his focused zoned in onto Hodge. The man was still coated in sweat and his chest was raising and lowering at an incredible rate. Alec thought that the last fight must have taken a lot out of him and he had a really high opinion of himself, or he just thought he could take on far more than he actually could. These thoughts inspired Alec’s confidence, it was the first time he thought that he could actually beat Hodge.

Hodge threw the first punch. It came at an alarming rate, hitting Alec directly in the stomach, which resulted in a small gasp escaping from Alec and a worried sound coming from Magnus in the corner. Alec retaliated with a right hook, which Hodge promptly ducked out of the way. While he was still down, Alec took the chance and followed with an uppercut with his left arm, connecting directly with Hodge’s chin, knocking him backwards on his feet.

“Come on.” He growled between breaths. “Hit me harder.” He threw a heavy punch that hit Alec directly on the side of the head, blurring his vision and knocking to around. Alec was on his knees, breathing heavily and staring at Magnus who had looked to have separated in two. “I know your parents, Lightwood. Your father was an amazing fighter. Guess it’s a skill that didn’t get passed down.”

Speckles of black and white lined Alec’s vision as he pushed himself back up onto his feet and turned back around. Hodge’s hands were down by his side as he rocked from side to side. As Alec regained his breath he took a few steps forward, with his gloves up, Hodge met the stance with a look of pain as Alec fired another right hook that connected with the side of Hodge’s head. One that didn’t knock Hodge nearly as far as it did Alec. Meaning Hodge regained his composure and hit Alec with multiple blows to the stomach. 

Alec felt the sweat begin to drip down his exposed torso, not a look he particularly wanted to go for, but one Magnus certainly wasn’t going to complain about. A ringing sound took over his ears just as Magnus began to shout words of encouragement towards him. Mixing the ringing with his fading vision, the world began to shut itself off from him. He didn’t have long before he would collapse. No longer able to hear anything, the reminder of fighting dirty came into his mind, a tactic he was happy to use at this point. Mustering as much of his energy as he possibly could he swung his left arm, in the hopes that Hodge would duck. But he didn’t, meaning that Alec’s glove hit the side of his head again.

‘I thought he would be tougher than this.’ Alec thought to himself as he stared at Hodge on the floor of the ring, desperately trying to inhale the smallest amounts of air. Hodge pushed himself up onto his knees and then back onto his feet. Alec changed his stance to be a little more defensive and allow himself to breathe a little easier and allow the speckles from his vision to leave. As breathing became easier for Alec, he noticed the same action looked painful for Hodge.

“Come on.” He repeated, almost toppling on his feet. “Come on, Robert! Let’s finish this.”

“Robert?” Alec whispered to himself. Robert, his father. Hodge made a feeble swipe at Alec, one he was easily able to avoid. Even just by stepping backwards, Hodge almost fell forward. Taking advantage of Hodge’s weakened state, Alec didn’t even need to hit him again. He stepped forwards and gently pushed Hodge backwards, knocking him off of his feet and onto his back to where he began shivering – much to the chagrin of the crowd. Alec stood in place for a moment, watching. “Someone should call him an ambulance.” He said awkwardly before dropping his gloves onto the ground of the ring and heading back towards Magnus.

Alec pushed himself out of the ring and took the white towel Magnus handed to him.

“As much as I like you and this… look, Alexander, I don’t want to get sweat on my clothes.” Magnus said as Alec wiped himself down with a smirk.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Alec asked looking back at Hodge, who was still on his back, breathing heavily, now with a blanket over him.

“Well, he’s not had a seizure, it just looks like he was shivering. So, I would imagine so.”

“Can we go?” Alec said, turning back to Magnus and taking his hand.

“Of course.” Alec scanned the room for Sebastian. Part of him was expecting to not find him, but to his surprise, Sebastian was stood with his arms folded next to the door that lead into the locker room and was motioning for Alec and Magnus to make their way over there.

\---

After a quick shower, Alec was back into the clothes he came in. Magnus had jokingly offered to stand guard on the showers to make sure Alec ‘didn’t get attacked’, an offer that, at any other time and in private, Alec would have happily accepted. But since they were in public, he turned down the offer – to Magnus’ disappointment and to an eye roll from Sebastian.

Sebastian left Alec and Magnus to their own devices as he promptly left the gym, telling them he would try and find out where Valentine is hiding out and let them know as soon as he did. Leaving Alec and Magnus with an indeterminate amount of time together before they had to do anything else.

“Hey, Magnus.” Alec said, looking over at Magnus, who had just pulled out of the parking space. “When we were in there, just before I knocked Hodge down, he called me Robert.”

“Robert? Well, do you know any Roberts?” Alec thought for a moment, he knew the answer, but he just thought about why.

“My father. Robert Lightwood. Which means I guess he knew Hodge.”

“How odd. I’m sure it’s nothing. I’m sure boxing is a fantastic form of exercise. That, or it’s great for when people want an outlet to punch each other in the face.” He shrugged, drawing a snort out of Alec. “How’s your face holding up? You got hit pretty hard.”

“I… think I’m fine.” Alec said warily. It hadn’t occurred until the moment he began talking, but the side of his head was a little sore from getting hit and the blurriness had dissipated. He was broadly okay, if a little rattled. “Maybe just a little sore where I got hit.”

“You know, not that I’m complaining, but I thought that Hodge might put up more of a fight.”

“So did I.” Alec said, as if he had just realised something. “Maybe we just got lucky coming in when he was just fighting. Maybe whoever that first fight was with just really took it out of him.”

“Perhaps, but you still technically won that fight.”

“I know. What kind of mixed up world are we in?” He said, putting his head back against the seat and putting a hand over his stomach. “I didn’t really plan on getting in any physical fights in my life, but here we are.” He chuckled softly to himself.

“Something tells me these aren’t the kinds of things you plan. By the way. I still don’t really feel comfortable going back to my place tonight. So, you perhaps want to get a hotel for the night or go back to your place? I’m fully aware of the single bed, I would just feel safer there.” Alec rolled his head over to look at Magnus.

“I’d like that.” He said quietly. “I want you to be safe.” He smiled.


	17. Cut Straight To The Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the culmination of our story, Alec and Magnus face off against Valentine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to post this last night, but other stuff got in the way - oops. Also, this is technically the final chapter of the main plot of this fic, leaving only the epilogue to come next.

A comfortable heat swirled in Alec’s dorm room. The door and window had been closed and locked all night and the bed itself hadn’t been used, the sheets on the other hand, had. Everything that had been on the floor had been moved onto the bed and pushed out of the way to clear as much space on the floor as possible, to make space for the sheet fort that had been erected within the space.

Sunlight pierced its way through the window and the sheets into Alec and Magnus’ fort, setting a warm glow over Alec’s face and stirring his sleep. As he wormed his way back into consciousness, he felt the weight of Magnus laying on his left arm and one of Magnus’ arms over his bare stomach. There was a moment where Alec thought about where he was, but once he realised he was back in his bedroom, with Magnus, a warm feeling swirled through his chest and he settled himself back down and moved his head closer to Magnus’. As he did, he felt Magnus’ arm tighten a little around his stomach – it was the most comfortable he has been in days.

After going to a run-down office building and getting into a boxing match against a man who apparently knew his father, Alec finally felt safe enough to close his eyes and lie in place, comfortable and happy. Alec didn’t think that Valentine would come after him in his own dorm building, especially since security had since been increased around campus, and not to mention the fact that a student would be likely to find it strange that a man, clearly not a college student, was making his way into a college dorm room.

As the two of them lay there, underneath the sheets on Alec’s floor, the thoughts of what was going to happen once everything was over went through Alec’s mind. As to whether Magnus would want to stay with him any longer at the risk of getting him into any more trouble. The fact that Magnus was staying with him throughout everything he brought on was a good enough sign for him. Had something like that happened earlier, then Alec may have thought differently. But he thought that if Magnus wanted to leave, then he would have done already. He then wondered whether Magnus was going to move to a different place since it was so easily broken into. He even considered their future together, whether Magnus would be willing to move in with him. And only him.

Nobody was around when Alec and Magnus made their way back into the Aquila building. Magnus moved his car away from the main college parking lot despite the campus being deathly silent, he chalked it up to not wanting to leave it out to be so exposed for everyone to see. More so, he didn’t want to run the risk of Valentine or any of his goons finding the car. After he told Alec this, a paranoid voice in Alec’s head thought ‘what if there are people at this college who work for Valentine?’ Everything, other than Magnus, made him uneasy.

Alec was on his back, oddly comfortable to say he was on his floor, now wide awake felt Magnus stir beside him. It was almost the perfect way for him to wake up. All he needed was a large enough bed for the two of them. Magnus released a content sounding sigh as sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked down to Alec.

“Good morning.” He said, voice laden with sleep, as he cracked a smile before placing a soft kiss onto Alec’s forehead. He looked Alec up and down. “This is certainly a view a would be happy to wake up to again.” Alec, suddenly aware that he had only a sheet covering a small part of his crotch and nothing else, laughed calmly to himself. Alec hadn’t been so brazen as to do the same with Magnus, but he noticed Magnus had managed to retain his underwear at some point, whereas he himself had not.

“Are you suggesting that we do this again?” Alec said moving both arms around the back of his head.

“I don’t see why not.” Magnus smiled. “Maybe next time we do this somewhere where there’s a little more room, so we’re freer to move how we want and not be so… restricted in what we’re doing.” Alec felt his face flush with colour as Magnus spoke, he pulled the sheet further over his body. “I don’t see what reason you have to be shy about it when I’ve already seen everything.” 

Magnus smiled and he leaned down to Alec’s level, placing a hand on Alec’s chest as the two kissed. Magnus’ lips felt incomparably soft as the heat of the room seemed to rush through Alec’s body, straight to the only covered part of his body. Everything was enough to make Alec almost forget about the situation that he had gotten the two of them into. Almost. The buzzing of Magnus’ phone, however, was what snapped the two of them back into reality from their steamy fort. A buzz that came with a sigh from Magnus as he prized himself off of Alec.

“Damn.” He said quietly, laying back down next to Alec.

“What’s wrong?”

“That was Sebastian.” Magnus placed an arm back over Alec’s stomach. “He said he found out where his father is going to be this afternoon, so it looks like we’re going to be doing this today. He also wants to meet us in the parking lot at twelve.” Alec’s insides jumped. Everything was happening faster than he thought it would, he expected that the two of them might have at least gotten a single day away from it so that he and Magnus could just be. Where perhaps they wouldn’t even need to leave the fort.

“I guess that’s a good thing, though.” Alec said, sounding more disappointed than he had intended to, and linking his hand into Magnus’. “It means that whatever happens, we don’t have to wait any longer and that we’ll be done with Valentine today.” Magnus sighed under Alec.

“I suppose.” Magnus began to rub Alec’s hand with his thumb. “Part of me was hoping that we would get a little time off from this. So that I could just enjoy your company.” Magnus spoke without looking up at Alec.

“Listen. Aren’t I usually the mopey one out of the two of us? And just think, after today, we’ll be done with Valentine. And then…” Sure, Alec and Magnus had slept together, numerous times the night before, but he still wasn’t completely confident about being so brazen with his words. “Then we can enjoy each other’s company without anything getting in the way.” That warranted an exhale that almost sounded like the makings of a laugh from Magnus.

“I certainly wouldn’t complain about that.” Magnus said, Alec noticed a weak smile had fought its way to the surface of Magnus’ face. “We should get up, however.” He sighed, pushing himself off of Alec. “It’s later than I thought it was, and we don’t have long until Sebastian wanted to meet.”

Alec watched Magnus’ lithe body move while he searched the fort for the rest of his clothes, before heading into Alec’s shower, as Alec lay there, considering a multitude of things. Magnus, himself being one of them and how he ended up in an almost perfect position with him. As warm as he had been with Magnus next to him, Alec felt a distinct chill as he made his own way out of the fort and began to dismantle it, in search of his own clothes. A job that proved to be more difficult that he expected. The one thing he was glad for was that no one was around to see his naked body as he searched. (Sure, Magnus had seen it, multiple times, but he was the exception.) He eventually decided on a simple blue denim shirt and black skinny jeans.

\---

Thankfully, there was nothing that got in the way of Alec and Magnus making their way down to meet Sebastian in the parking lot. Alec had even managed to shower after Magnus. He almost thought that Magnus made managed to make the bathroom smell oddly nice. After Magnus left the bathroom there was a faint citrus aroma that seemed to follow him wherever he went.

There was nothing in the sky and only one or two people on campus, despite it being a school day. The fact that there was nothing in the sky and no wind troubled Alec. It felt unnatural to him. The college campus was a fairly open space and was often subject to strong winds. Magnus mentioned to him that it was a little odd and mentioned that it could have been an omen for the fact that they were doing something that was the equivalent of walking into the area right before the final boss. The area where everything is silent and the heroes are given copious amounts of supplies, signalling they are about to do something big.

Sebastian was there waiting for them. His golden hair looked pale in the sunlight which didn’t help the pallor of his skin. There were no greetings between the three of them as they walked up to one another, Sebastian got straight down to business.

“My father organised a meeting with some of his friends.” He eyes shifted between Alec and Magnus. “Word has gotten to him that Brother Jeremiah has disappeared and that Hodge Starkweather has been taken to the hospital. It doesn’t take a genius to realise he wants to know what’s going on with his gang.”

“And where, may I ask, is this all taking place?” Magnus said, in a cool voice. Sebastian ground his feet a little into the ground and rubbed the back of his neck.

“My house.” He spoke quickly.

“Your… house? You mean where you’re living right now?” Alec asked. As soon as he said that, he presumed that he would be wrong. But then again, Alec didn’t know where he lived. For all he knew, Sebastian could have still lived in his family home, with his father.

“No.” Sebastian’s tone lowered. “In the house I grew up in. My f- Valentine still uses it.”

“How do you know he’ll be there.”

“Believe me, he will. As much as I don’t want to, I know my father. When something goes wrong… he always goes back home. And I assume that this would constitute as something going wrong, at least for him.”

“All right, I suppose you require that I drive us there? Because I certainly don’t know where that is. And I presume you don’t either, Alec?” Alec shook his head in response.

“I do.” Sebastian nodded his head. “I know that I’ve asked a lot of you and given you next to no details, but I need the two of you to know that once we take care of my father, then this should all be over.”

“You’re making this seem a lot simpler then I’m assuming it’s going to be.”

“If I am, it’s unintentional. And if he’s going to want to fight us, or try and stop us, then all three of us are going to need to try and stop him together – he’s more dangerous than the other two. And he’s likely to have something up his sleeve, whether he’s expecting us to show up or not.”

“Well, he’s definitely not going to be happy, surely.” Alec chimed in.

“That’s true.” Sebastian sighed and crossed his arms. “Things going wrong under him, he’ll be looking for someone else to blame and he’s likely to be extremely agitated.” He sighed and looked off to the side. “Let’s just head off. I don’t want to wait around any longer.”

Without even waiting for Alec or Magnus’ reply Sebastian made his way over to Magnus’ car, which was now moved back into the regular parking lot. Alec and Magnus’ eyes met. Without a word, the two of them followed Sebastian to the car.

\---

“So…” Magnus began, attempting to break the silence in the car. “Sebastian, what’s the neighbourhood like? Where we’re going, I mean.” Sebastian remained completely silent, minus giving out directions.

Much like when the group went to Brother Jeremiah’s office building, they left the city and the large buildings slowly lowered in height and appeared less frequently. They were quickly exchanged for the highway which then became the suburbs. The first of the houses that appeared were the ones of the rich. The houses all had two floors, as a minimum, with perfectly manicured lawns and a myriad of cars that ranged from sports cars to mini-vans for the midlife crises to the soccer moms of the neighbourhoods.

Alec found himself spacing out as they drove, imagining what possible future he would end up as. He was only eighteen, but he could feel himself already getting in a panic about what he was doing after college. There was a part of him wanting to know where he was going to end up, and there was a part of him thinking the opposite. One thing he did know was that there was a part of him that was in love with the suburbs they were driving through. While it wasn’t something he found himself thinking about much, he thought about moving into one of the houses – starting a family and raising children. The only matter was who he was going to make it to that point with. And then he looked over to Magnus. He was nowhere near to getting to where he wanted to, but with Magnus he was getting closer.

\---

There was a visible change in quality of the location after they passed the final house in the high-class suburb. And they were on the complete other side of town from the kinds of houses that the college students would live in. Although, the grime and mess of the neighbourhood they were entering was a different kind of grime from that of college students. 

Where college students’ mess was very fleeting and easily fixable, the mess that they were witnessing was that of years of neglect. It was more than just the mess. The houses were all similar hues, they were all faded browns and greys. It was also a common sight that a few of the houses were becoming derelict, abandoned and were to the point where some of them were literally falling apart. With windows missing, old furniture in the street and chunks of wood missing, it was obvious that they were in a neighbourhood that people generally didn’t care about.

It snapped Alec out of his daydream of a white picket fence life and dragged him back into reality. He had always had a fairly easy life, in that he had always had a nice house to live in, but the reality was that people grew up in the dilapidated houses and there were still people that lived in them, people who were poor and were struggling every day. However Sebastian had managed to make his way, financially, to college, if he grew up in a neighbourhood like the one they were in, it explained a lot about his character. It was a thought that cut straight to the heart, Alec found himself with a new level of sympathy for Sebastian.

“Take the next right, then it’s the second house on your right.” Sebastian said in a flat tone. Alec couldn’t help but think that it sounded almost like Sebastian didn’t want to do this. An understandable thought. Regardless of his opinion, Valentine was still Sebastian’s father and it was undoubtedly going to be a difficult thing for him to do. “When we get there, let me in first, at least for a moment. There’s something that I need to say to my father. Give me a minute, then you can follow me in.”

“Alright.” Magnus said. Nothing more was added. And Alec understood completely.

Magnus turned the final corner smoothly and stopped a few houses passed Valentine’s. Alec noticed that Sebastian watch it as they went by. And mere seconds after they stopped, Sebastian was out of the car and headed towards the house. One thing Alec noticed was Sebastian pulling out his phone before he walked into the house.

The street was no different from the rest of the neighbourhood. And Valentine’s house looked remarkably unimpressive, even compared to the others. It was a single-story house, raised by a concrete foundation and made of exposed red brick, with a few of the bricks missing. Most likely from years of weathering. From where Alec and Magnus sat, they could see into the lounge at the front of the house as it looked like the curtains had been pulled from the railing. From their limited view, the house looked to be a complete wreck.

“It’s been long enough.” Alec broke in with. “Should we go in after him?” It was more of a suggestion that a question, but Alec wanted to be sure that Magnus was ready.

“I suppose. I don’t think that this is going to get any easier, so we should.” The two stepped out of the car and began to walk towards the house. Magnus looked back at his car, sighed and shook his head before they continued. “How do you want to do this?” He spoke quietly as muffled voices arose from inside. They were stood at the front door, that Sebastian had left ajar for silent entry.

Alec closed his eyes and sighed. Just before he reached for the door, Magnus squeezed the hand closest to his own.

“Don’t worry about a thing, Alexander. Once we’re done with this, it will all be over.” Magnus smiled. Under the faint light and buzzing of a struggling street light, Magnus’ face looked soft and almost unfazed by everything they were involved in. It made Alec wonder whether Magnus had ever done anything this strange before, there was a part of Alec that wouldn’t have been surprised if it was the case. 

Alec smiled back at Magnus and pushed the door open. What got Alec was that it opened silently. From the shoddy condition of the rest of the house, he was half expecting it to fall off of its hinges as it moved, or to at least creak as it opened. The inside of the house was nicer than he was expecting. It wasn’t that the house was in disarray, it was just that it looked as though it hadn’t been lived in for a long time and that it was just in need of some love and some updating, with graphic wallpaper and worn out looking carpet, illuminated by exposed light bulbs to light the entire house.

\---

The muffled voices were clearer now the door was open, a deeper voice, that Alec distinctly recognised to be Valentine’s, sounded far more aggressive than Sebastian’s did. Alec and Magnus passed the lounge on left as they headed towards the voices that were promptly rising to shouts until Sebastian’s voice was drowned out completely, followed by a slamming of a door.

A shadow could be seen at the end of the hallway they were walking down. Valentine. It had to have been. He was in the kitchen. Alec and Magnus took one final moment to themselves, a quick squeeze on the hand, before walking into the kitchen and proving their thoughts right.

The kitchen was deceptively large, with a multitude of worn out counter-tops and equipment that all looked to be the same faded wood. It was completely stocked, pots and pan included. A thin looking table stood in the center of the room taking up a large portion of the space, covered in plates and crockery. The walls were a faded yellow and the floor a dirty white.

It was Valentine. He looked the same as when Alec first saw him, tall, broad and in a leather coat and dark jeans, stood next to a knife block. At the sound of the two walking in, he turned on his heels. His eyes met with Alec’s.

“You.” He said, calmly. His face was bright red and he had a fresh cut on his left cheek. “You’re the one that’s been ruining everything for me and my gang.” As intimidating as Valentine was, Alec still wasn’t entirely sure what Valentine’s gang actually did. Whether they were dealing drugs like Sebastian said, or just being generally aggressive, Alec didn’t know. “You came here with my pathetic excuse for a son, didn’t you?” He breathed heavily before his eyes shot off to one side. “Take his friend.”

Before either Alec or Magnus were able to respond to what he was saying. Magnus was grabbed and pulled out of the kitchen, with the door promptly locked behind him. Alec attempted to run after him, only to be stopped by Valentine’s booming voice, telling him to stop. It was a voice that completely froze Alec in place, he felt the rage course through the entirety of his body, followed by a shudder.

“I’m not having anyone get in the way.” Valentine’s rage seemed to completely culminate in his voice and his fists balled on the table. “I don’t like people getting in the way of my business. And you’ve done nothing but that.”

Alec plucked his courage from somewhere deep inside of him. Sebastian was nowhere to be seen and Magnus had been taken who-knows-where. He was the only one left who could stop Valentine, only he had no idea how. It was a possibility he could use one of the knives in the kitchen to fight with, but they were all behind Valentine. And after boxing Hodge, he wasn’t at his physical prime.

“And what exactly is your business? Is kidnapping young women part of your business?

“It’s nothing that you would ever understand, Lightwood.” Lightwood. Alec’s mind immediately raced as to how Valentine could have possibly known his name. But then it came to him, Hodge. Hodge mentioned Robert, his father. “It was something that at least your father did. Before he ran away.” Valentine sneered. “It’s no surprise that his son turned out to be, well let’s just say a disappointment.” He laughed through his teeth. Alec was frozen solid. “What do you think you could possibly do to me?” Valentine opened his arms and shook his head.

Alec scanned the room a quickly as he could. There were plates all over the table. The first thing that came to mind was throw a plate, get Valentine away from the knives and then get there himself. Alec trusted his aim, especially at such a short distance.

“Stop you.” Alec said, planting his feet.

“Stop me from doing what?” Valentine’s grin widened. “Huh? What are you gonna do? You certainly couldn’t tell your father you like boys, could you? So, how are you going to stop me?”

Pressure increased on Alec’s palms as he balled his fists and pressed his nails against his own skin and dropped his head down to the floor.

“That’s what I thought. You’re pathetic.” Valentine chuckled as he spoke.

Alec opened his eyes and grabbed the plate closest to him. He was thankful that is was in fact some kind of ceramic and not paper. Trusting his aim, Alec threw the plate directly at Valentine’s face. With almost lightning reactions, Valentine raised his arms and the plate shattered against the sleeve of his jacket.

Moving his arms out of the way, Valentine’s face was a brighter shade of red. Then, without speech, Valentine hooked his hands under the table and pushed it off to his right, shattering the plates, knocking all the crockery onto the floor around them and knocking the exposed light bulb causing it to sway violently from side to side. Following the table being thrown, he charged towards Alec with incredible force. Alec dove out of the way to his right, causing Valentine to crash into the wall and creating a large crack in the wall.

Alec saw that Valentine hit the wall so hard that he momentarily jammed himself in placing. Taking to opportunity, he rose back to his feet and made for the knife block on the far side of the kitchen, trampling ceramic and shards of wood underfoot.

He yanked one of the knives from the wooden block. It wasn’t exactly sharp but it would do the job if push came to shove – and it had. Alec turned around to face Valentine, only to see that he had removed himself from the wall and was armed with his own knife.

“You never stood a chance. Your father couldn’t handle it and if that pathetic excuse of a fight is anything to go by, neither can you.”

Alec wound up to throw the knife he was wielding only to be stopped by a searing pain firing through his right shoulder causing him to drop his own knife. Fire coursed through his veins as he could see the handle and a portion of the blade of a knife embedded in his shoulder. Through the pain, Alec could feel his shirt begin to become wet around the knife. He looked back towards Valentine who was on the tail end of laughing before charging towards Alec. The pain was too much, gluing Alec in place until Valentine smashed the full weight of his body against Alec, knocking him against the counter tops, sending a pain shooting through his spine and clouding his vision, he could barely even see Valentine in front of him. One thing he did hear was Valentine cry out in pain. As Valentine back away from Alec, he grabbed Alec by the front of his shirt and threw him onto the ground.

As he hit the ground Alec could no longer move himself. The pain was too much for him to bare. Darkness took over his vision, slowly from the edges as he lay amongst shattered ceramic and wood. His hearing was also beginning to leave him as well. In the distance, he heard sirens getting rapidly louder.

“You really thought you would be able to stop me, didn’t you?” Valentine’s voice pulsed through Alec’s mind at varying volumes. He rolled over onto his back as he felt blood soak through his sleeve and onto the floor.

In the last moments of his consciousness, Alec heard the sounds of smashing mixing in with yelling before gunshots sounded out. Once all was silent, the darkness took over Alec’s vision and he was consumed and left in a pool of his own blood.


	18. Only One (Epilogue)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We catch up with Alec and Magnus in the wake of taking down Valentine and returning to college life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the fic is finally fully uploaded. To tell the truth, while I do have a couple of ideas for future fics. But I haven't even gotten passed the planning phase. So, whether they appear any time soon - or at all, remains to be seen. But enjoy this one at least since it is now COMPLETED!!!

A low humming, accompanied with the occasional muffled beep was the first thing Alec heard as his consciousness re-surfaced. Forcing his eyes open took a tremendous amount of effort and once he managed the feat, he struggled to keep them open long enough for the darkness and fuzziness at the edge of his vision to dissipate. His mind was completely empty as he struggled to regain his consciousness. All his focus and all his might went into it. He managed to blink a few times to remove the feeling of pure exhaustion and a little of the fuzziness. Despite regaining a small portion of his energy, it wasn’t nearly enough for him to move anything more than just rolling his head from one side to the other.

Rolling his head to the left, his eyes set on a machine. In his state, he wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but he could tell that it was the source of the beeping. The longer he stared at it, he noticed that it looked to be more than one machine on one stand. He noticed wires and tubes coming from various ports on the machine which, at that point, he looked down to see that one of them was connected to his arm. But upon closer inspection, it wasn’t one of the machines that was connected to him, it was an IV bag around the back of the machines. He dropped his arm back down, too weak to hold it up any longer and he rolled his head so that his was looking back up.

The room was eerily clean and all of the walls were a plain white, with nothing on but a clock that read a time he couldn’t quite make out. Pairing that with the machines and the IV, he managed to put two and two together. He was in a hospital.

A dull pain emitted from Alec’s right shoulder, he was still too stiff to be able to move his head around fully to see it. From the corner of his eyes he could see white bandages over his arm. It took a moment for everything to return to his mind, but the memory of getting a knife lodged in his shoulder by Valentine returned. Then getting knocked to the floor and falling unconscious returned to him. It was just everything else that he couldn’t remember.

There was little he could do where he was, so he rolled his head to the right where a large portion of the wall was taken up by a window. Below the window, however, was a green sofa with someone laying with their back to him. There was only one person that Alec knew who had as flashy clothes as the person on the sofa. It was Magnus. At some point, he must have been brought to the hospital and Magnus must have made his was there too. There was a level of relief along with his discomfort at seeing Magnus there, especially since Alec didn’t actually realise where the hospital was.

“Magnus…” Alec mustered, although it came out more as a croaking noise than Magnus’ name. Alec realised how weak his voice was and, understandably, didn’t bother trying again to wake Magnus. Instead he placed his head back on the pillow to where he quickly fell back out of consciousness.

\---

The beeping was there again, alongside a foreign voice saying his name. “Alec.” Then a second, more recognisable voice, “Alexander?” Magnus was trying to talk to him. Alec managed to open his eyes far easier the second time around, although the pain in his shoulder was more noticeable the second time around.

“Glad to see you’re back with us.” The unfamiliar voice said from Alec’s left side. A doctor, unremarkable and forgettable. Alec rolled his head over to the other side to see Magnus, now awake – still tired, standing to the side of his bed and smiling softly.

“Morning, sleepyhead.” Magnus said, drawing a weak smile from Alec. He rolled his head back so he was staring upwards.

“What happened?” He asked, his voice was a little stronger than it was before. No longer a croak, but barely more than a whisper.

“You were brought to the hospital after you got attacked. The police were called to the house where you were apparently lying in a pool of blood with a knife in your shoulder.”

“Who…?” Was all he managed.

“A boy, similar to your age, Sebastian, I think his name was. He called the police and they called the paramedics to come get you. They brought your friend here as well.” Alec rolled his head over to Magnus before looking back to the doctor. “He was a little beaten up, but fine. But you on the other hand, we wondered whether you would ever make it – you lost a hell of a lot of blood.”

“What happened to…” Alec contemplated saying Valentine’s name. “The man who attacked me.”

“Dead.” The doctor sighed. “The police saw the knife in your shoulder, a few knives missing from a knife block, there was that and he tried attacking the police who showed up, so they shot him so he wouldn’t harm anybody else.”

“Does that…” Alec rolled his head over to look at Magnus. “Does that mean?” Magnus said nothing, he merely nodded in response with the same warm smile on his face. The doctor looked between the two of them and squinted, considering what they were talking about before returning to their clipboard.

“We need to keep you here a little longer before we can let you go. We just want to make sure that the wound in your shoulder starts making a proper recovery. But that should really only be a few more day, at the most. Then you can head home.” The doctor wrote something down on the clipboard, but Alec was far too exhausted to try and make out what it was. “You’re very lucky, Mr. Lightwood.”

Not knowing the proper way to respond, Alec simply thanked the doctor, and they sent themselves on their way to see the next patient on their rounds. There was something about the doctor that made Alec feel uneasy, although he settled on the fact that it was probably down to him not even remembering that he was brought to hospital in the first place. Although, it came as a wave of relief, once the doctor left, that Alec was left alone with Magnus.

\---

“This might come as a stupid question,” Magnus started, “but how are you feeling?” Magnus had moved a chair from outside of the room in, so that he could sit by Alec’s bedside.

“I suppose other than the gaping hole in my shoulder, I’m fine.”

“Oh, it was never a ‘gaping’ hole.” Magnus brushed off. “Although, you did need surgery so that you didn’t completely bleed out and the close up the wound.”

“Magnus, I don’t even know where we are – other than a hospital.”

“It’s about half a mile out from the city centre, not far from anywhere.” Magnus smiled.

“Okay. Now, Magnus, stop me if this is a stupid question but… what happened? After I got stabbed… I don’t remember what happened and I don’t know where Sebastian is.”  
“Oh, he’s fine. Much like me, he just got a little scraped up. You, absolutely, got the worst of it all. But, when I got pulled out of the kitchen. It wasn’t particularly long until the police showed up. None of the goons who grabbed me were even armed so the police took them down with ease. One of them had an ambulance on the way for me alone, but then they found you, on the floor, in the kitchen.” Magnus took Alec’s hand. “There was a part of me…” He took a breath, composing himself before he continued. “There was a part of me that was worried you wouldn’t make it. Especially since it all happened just last night.”

“Magnus.” Alec said weakly, he felt himself welling up at the sight of Magnus’ worry for him. “Think of it like this. I made it through this, I can do anything.” Magnus dropped his head a stifled a weak laugh.

“That is true.”

“By the way, don’t they only let family in these kinds of rooms?”

“Normally, yes. But your parents were so far away, I told them that we lived together and they allowed me in, so you had someone here.” Alec took a moment to think. His parents must have been called. And it would take them a good few hours to arrive. They would likely arrive some time during the afternoon.

“I would be alright with that.” Alec said weakly, giving Magnus’ hand a squeeze.

“With what? Your parents coming? I should hope so.”

“No- not that, well obviously that’s fine. But I meant us… living together… I’d really like that, Magnus.”

Magnus’ soft smile returned, alongside the crinkles around his eyes. “I would too, Alexander.” Magnus stood up out of his chair and leant over the bed, wary of Alec’s shoulder, he leant down a placed a kiss on Alec’s lips.

\---

(TWO MONTHS LATER)

The moon was high in the sky as Alec walked alongside Magnus hand in hand towards the sports hall. He didn’t originally plan on going to the Winter Dance, but plans change. And Alec’s certainly had. He hadn’t planned on getting stabbed and almost dying either, but that still happened.

“Thank you for agreeing to come with me, Alexander.” Magnus said, rubbing his thumb over Alec’s hand.

“No problem.” Alec said, turning his head to look at Magnus. “You’re the only one that I would even dream of coming to something like this with. And you’re the only one that would even manage to get me to come.” The fairy lights glowed as Alec and Magnus walked into the hall. The glowing lights created an air that filled Alec’s body with a happy feeling he hadn’t felt in weeks.

“By the way, everything went through perfectly on the contracts.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“You’re going to have to put up with me for at least this next year now.”

“Really?”

“Yes. We got the place.” Alec wanted to pull Magnus into a tight hug, but public displays of affection weren’t exactly Alec’s thing. As well as that, his shoulder was still a little stiff from the wound.

The sports hall that Alec had come to known had been completely transformed. Thin, white sheets cascaded down from the ceiling and down the walls with glitter imbued in the fabric creating an almost disco ball like effect for the entire room. More fairy lights glowed around the room, lining the floors and amidst the dry ice that was being blown across the floor. It wasn’t the same hall, it couldn’t have been. Alec felt as though he had walked through a portal into another dimension.

“Magnus.” Alec turned his head looking at the entire room. “This is incredible.”

“It’s what I do.” He shrugged.

Half an hour later, Alec and Magnus found themselves in the middle of the dancefloor, in one another’s arms, slow dancing to a romantic song playing.

“Magnus.” Alec took a breath. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For everything. You didn’t need to come with me when I got into… well.” He motioned to his shoulder. “You’ve been perfect to me. I couldn’t think of anything better that you could have done for me. You stuck with me throughout everything. And you didn’t have to do any of that.”

“That’s true. But what kind of terrible boyfriend would I be if I just left you on your own through that?”

“I don’t know. I’m just… I’ve just never been happier, Magnus.” The moment he finished the sentence, Magnus leant into him, pressing his lips against Alec’s. Magnus’ lips were as soft as they had ever been. Then as they kissed, a flowed of silver glitter began to fall from the ceiling, enveloping the two in a wave of glistening lights.

“Magnus… I love you.”


End file.
